"Satan II" explodes during launch Putin wants to replicate Ukraine missile and make a mockery of himself
The Russian RS-28 Sarmat nuclear missile is supposed to be a "miracle weapon", claims Vladimir Putin. Now one of them has apparently exploded during launch. This is a rather embarrassing setback for the Kremlin.
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- Russia wants to modernize its nuclear arsenal with the RS-28 Sarmat missile - and has so far failed miserably. Traces of a huge explosion have now been discovered on the launch pad.
- For Putin, the latest setback is highly embarrassing: "He doesn't have his store under control," say experts.
- The predecessor model was built in Ukraine during the Soviet era: Russian engineers have so far failed to design a functional successor.
It is Putin's problem missile, although the Russian ruler actually wants to spread fear and terror with the intercontinental weapon "Sarmat". Most recently, the Kremlin even threatened to use it to reach and destroy the European Parliament in Strasbourg within 3:20 minutes.
The numbers and data of the missile are indeed frightening. Christened "Satan II" by NATO, the RS-28 Sarmat has a take-off weight of 208 tons. With a range of 18,000 kilometers and up to 15 independently controllable nuclear warheads, it can attack practically any target worldwide. It also carries the "Awangard" hypersonic weapon, which can be detonated at an altitude of 100 kilometers.
But numbers are one thing, reality is another - and looks disastrous for Putin.
Satellite images show giant crater
Russia appears to have suffered a "catastrophic failure" in a test of the Sarmat missile, a key weapon in the modernization of Putin's nuclear arsenal. This is the conclusion drawn by weapons experts from satellite images taken at the weekend. "The expert world is looking at the development of the Sarmat and is now laughing itself silly," comments Christian Mölling from the German Bertelsmann Foundation in Der Spiegel.
Images from 21 September show a crater around 60 meters wide at the Plesetsk cosmodrome in northern Russia. The images show extensive damage that was not visible at the beginning of the month.
"By all appearances, it was a failed test. There is a big hole in the ground," Geneva-based analyst Pavel Podvig is quoted as saying by the Reuters news agency. "There was a serious incident with the missile and the silo," said the head of the Russian Nuclear Forces project.
Embarrassing setback
For the Russian weapons industry, the suspected explosion of the Sarmat missile is not only a huge setback but also extremely embarrassing. Firstly, because Vladimir Putin had already bragged about the new "wonder weapon" in 2018. Secondly, because the missile is the successor to the RS-20, known to NATO as the SS-18 "Satan": And this was developed and built in what is now Ukraine during the Soviet era.
Even after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Ukrainian engineers maintained the Russian RS-20 arsenal. Until the Kremlin annexed Crimea in 2014 and, of course, discontinued the service. Around 40 missiles are said to still be in Russia's nuclear arsenal: However, they can no longer be properly maintained because Russia no longer has access to the design documents stored in Ukraine.
Russia wants to modernize its nuclear forces with the new Sarmat missile. However, according to analyst Timothy Wright from the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) in London, the crater landscape discovered at the launch pad at the weekend is "already the fourth test failure in a row, which could at least further delay the already delayed commissioning and at best raise questions about the feasibility of the program".
"Putin does not have his store under control"
Putin's rocket project is clearly going anything but as planned. According to Wright, the latest failure means "that the Russian missile forces will have to continue to rely on old material".
This is an embarrassing failure for the country. "Others will exploit this, along the lines of: miracle weapons my ass - Putin doesn't have his store under control," suspects Markus Schiller. The missile expert from the University of the German Armed Forces in Munich knows that the new Sarmat is very similar in principle to the old Ukrainian missiles. The only difference is that the Russian weapons industry is apparently unable to get them to take off.