(GoRealNewsNow.com) – In a new step escalating ongoing tensions with the US and its NATO allies, Russia announced it has officially deployed its newest and most advanced intercontinental ballistic missile “Sarmat,” also known as “Satan II.”
The deployment of the “Satan II” missiles on active duty was announced at the end of last week by Yuri Borisov, head of Moscow’s Roscosmos space agency, The Associated Press reports, as cited by Breitbart News.
The development of the new nuclear intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) was officially announced by Russian leader Vladimir Putin back in 2018 when he declared that it and other advanced weapons would scare away Russia’s enemies.
During the same presentation, he also showed off Russia’s first hypersonic missile, “Kinzhal” (“Dagger”), which he advertised as unstoppable.
Earlier this year, Ukraine’s military shot down Kinzhal missiles using American Patriot missile defense systems, showing the Russian rockets’ remnants.
The Sarmat, or “Satan II,” ICBM is silo-based and capable of carrying multiple nuclear warheads. It weighs over 200 metric tons and has a range of 11,000 miles.
It is supposed to replace the R-36 Soviet-era ICBMs in Russia’s arsenal known in NATO countries with the reporting name “Satan.”
“The Sarmat strategic system has assumed combat alert posture,” Roscosmos chief Borisov said, as cited by the state-run TASS agency and Al Jazeera.
“Based on experts’ estimates, the RS-28 Sarmat is capable of delivering a MIRVed warhead weighing up to 10 tonnes to any location worldwide, both over the North and South Poles,” reported TASS, whose name is short for “Telegraphic Agency of the Soviet Union.”
Speaking to reporters on Friday, Adm. John Kirby, the spokesman of the White House National Security Council, informed he was in no position to verify the reports that Putin’s Russia had placed the Sarmat missiles on active combat duty.
According to Russian officials, Sarmat could deliver up to 15 nuclear warheads, but the US military said the figure is probably closer to 10.
“[The Sarmat will] reliably ensure the security of Russia from external threats and make those, who in the heat of aggressive rhetoric try to threaten our country, think twice,” Putin said last year, several months after he sent Russia’s troops to invade Ukraine from three sides.