As the invasion of Ukraine by Russian forces near Kyiv, some people believe that the United States and NATO could be muting a military action because of President Vladimir Putin’s Satan 2 liquid fueled nuclear missile.
The RS-28 Sarmat (Russian: РС-28 Сармат, named after the Sarmatians; NATO reporting name: SS-X-29 or SS-X-30) is a Russian liquid-fueled, MIRV-equipped super-heavy intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) under development by the Makeyev Rocket Design Bureau since 2009.
It is intended to replace the R-36M ICBM (SS-18 ‘Satan’) in Russia’s arsenal.
The Sarmat is one of the six new Russian strategic weapons unveiled by Russian President Vladimir Putin on 1 March 2018. The RS-28 Sarmat is expected to make its first test flight in 2022, and enter service later in the year.
In February 2014, a Russian military official announced the Sarmat is expected to be ready for deployment around 2020. In May the same year, another official source suggested that the program was being accelerated and that it would, in his opinion, constitute up to 100 percent of Russia’s fixed land-based nuclear arsenal by 2021.
In late June 2015, it was reported that the production schedule for the first prototype of the Sarmat was slipping. The RS-28 Sarmat was expected to become operational in 2016.
On 10 August 2016, Russia successfully tested the RS-28’s first-stage engine named PDU-99.
In early 2017, prototype missiles had been reportedly built and delivered to Plesetsk Cosmodrome for trials but the test program was being delayed to re-check key hardware components before initial launch.
The RS-28 Sarmat will be capable of carrying about 10 tonnes of payload for either up to 10 heavy or 15 light MIRV warheads, an unspecified number of Avangard hypersonic glide vehicles (HGVs) or a combination of warheads and massive amounts of countermeasures against anti-ballistic missile systems.
The Russian ministry of Defense said that the missile is Russia’s response to the US Prompt Global Strike system.
Sarmat has a short boost phase, which shortens the interval when it can be tracked by satellites with infrared sensors, such as the U.S. Space-Based Infrared System, making it more difficult to intercept.
It is speculated that the Sarmat could fly a trajectory over the South Pole, completely immune to any current missile defense system, and that it has the Fractional Orbital Bombardment (FOBS) capability.
According to various sources, RS-28’s launch sites are to be equipped with the “Mozyr” active protection system, designed to negate potential adversary’s first strike advantage by kinetically destroying incoming bombs, cruise missiles and ICBM warheads at altitudes of up to 6 km.
