Russia Deploys 'Satan 2' Missiles: What We Know About Nuclear-Capable Weapon

Russia has upped its nuclear rhetoric after it said it had put into service an advanced intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) Vladimir Putin once said would make Moscow's enemies "think twice."

The head of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, Yuri Borisov, said that Sarmat missiles had "assumed combat duty," according to the Russian state news agency Tass. It comes as the threat of Russia's nuclear capabilities has hung over the war in Ukraine started by Putin.

What Is the Sarmat?

The RS-28 Sarmat is a Russian liquid-fueled ICBM produced by the Makeyev Rocket Design Bureau.

It was built with the intention to replace the R-36 ICBMs which only had a range of up to 9,940 miles. They had the NATO reporting name of Satan which is why its successor is often unofficially called Satan II.

The RS-28 Sarmat is 116 feet long, weighs 220 tons, and can reportedly carry up to 15 light nuclear warheads. With a range of 11,000 miles, the weapon is capable of striking targets in the United States and Europe.

For comparison, the U.S. LGM-30 Minuteman missile weighs about 36 tons, can travel about 8,100 miles and its 5.5-foot diameter is about 4 feet smaller.

A silo-based missile, the Sarmat is thought to have a short initial launch phase, which means that surveillance systems have little time to track its take-off.

Two months after the start of Putin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the missile was test-fired on 20 April 2022, from Plesetsk in the Arkhangelsk region of the country, 500 miles north of Moscow. It reportedly hit targets on the Kamchatka peninsula, 3,700 miles away in Russia's far east.

What Have Vladimir Putin and Kremlin Propagandists Said?

The Sarmat was one of six new Russian strategic weapons Putin unveiled in a state-of-the-nation address on March 1, 2018, as part of the "next generation" of nuclear missile technology.

After its first successful test in April 2022, which the U.S. had been informed about in advance, Putin said that the missile had "the highest tactical and technical characteristics and is capable of overcoming all modern means of anti-missile defense."

He said that there are "no analogs in the world" and won't be "for a long time to come." He added that the weapon will "make those who in the heat of aggressive rhetoric, try to threaten our country, think twice."

Propagandists on Russian state television programs have also boasted about the Sarmat as a sign of Russia's nuclear capabilities which could be used against the countries that are supporting Ukraine in its fight against Russia.

On the Russia-1 channel's 60 Minutes, chairman of the nationalist Rodina political party, Aleksey Zhuravlyov "one Sarmat missile and the British Isles will be no more."

Meanwhile, in March this year, Putin ally Vladimir Solovyov said on his nightly program he'd like the Sarmat to be used, and that if Western countries are "impudent...we'll see it in action."

However, Pavel Podvig, who runs the research project Russian Nuclear Forces in Geneva, wrote on X (formerly Twitter) that in February this year, Russia's second test launch of the Sarmat ICBM had been unsuccessful due to the failure of the second stage of the missile. "Plus, people had other questions," he wrote, "so, until it's confirmed, we are back to one success, one failure, not deployed."