World

WATCH: Newest Sarmat ICBM Test Preparations Caught on Video

The Russian Ministry of Defense released a video showing preparations for a new Sarmat ballistic missile test launch.
Sputnik

The short video, just two minutes long, shows the newest Russian intercontinental ballistic missile being loaded into a launch silo. In the video, employees of the Krasmash factory, which specializes in ballistic missile production, set up the equipment.

​The Sarmat missile, known under the macabre NATO classification of Satan-2, has a starting weight of 200 tons, a length of about 35 meters and carries more than 10 nuclear warheads of up to one megaton each. It also sports missile defense penetration countermeasures.

Russia Intentionally Leaked Info on Advanced Sarmat ICBM for US in 2007 - Source
The most prominent feature of Sarmat is its extensive range, which allows it to attack targets from any angle, even flying over the South Pole. This is in contrast to the Cold War, when the USSR and the US considered the North Pole as the most probable direction of a nuclear attack, since both countries sit in the northern hemisphere.

The first test launch of the missile took place at the end of 2017 and was judged a success.

According to Yuri Borisov, deputy minister of defense of Russia, all practical, scientific and production problems with this missile have been overcome.

"Productive forces are prepared that can allow the production of as many missiles as the Ministry of Defense requires," he said in an interview Monday.

Sarmat was one of a set of advanced weapons presented by Russian President Vladimir Putin during his Address to Russia's Federal Assembly February 28.

Discuss