RS-28 Sarmat

RS-28 Sarmat Latest News

As tensions escalate between the United States and Russia, the spotlight is back on one of the deadliest weapons in Russia’s nuclear arsenal, the RS-28 Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), dubbed ‘Satan 2’ by NATO.

About RS-28 Sarmat

• The RS-28 Sarmat is Russia’s new generation intercontinental ballistic missile.
• It is named after the Sarmatian people of the fourth and fifth century BC. 
• It has also been referred to in the West as the “Satan II”.

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RS-28 Sarmat Features

• It is a three-stage, liquid-fueled missile with a range of 18,000 km and a launch weight of more than 208 tonnes. 
• It is the world’s heaviest ICBM.
• The missile is 35.3 meters long and 3 meters in diameter.
• Maximum speed of 25,500 kph (about Mach 20). 
• It can carry a 10-ton payload and can load a wide variety of warhead options.
• It can carry up to 16 independently targetable nuclear warheads as well as Avangard hypersonic glide vehicles.
• Each warhead gets its guidance system, using inertial navigation, GLONASS (Russia’s GNSS), and Astro-inertial tech to stay on target.
• While the RS-28 Sarmat can be launched much like a regular ICBM, it is thought to be also capable of what is called fractional orbital bombardment.
• A fractional orbital bombardment means firing an ICBM into a low orbit of the Earth – much lower than a conventional firing – potentially in the opposite direction to the target.
• The Sarmat reportedly could deliver warheads 2,000 times as powerful as the atom bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.

Source: N18