Missile Sarmat

In News

Russia has recently tested its new Inter Continental Ballistic Missile (ICBM)-Sarmat.

About the News

• The testing has come amidst stiff resistance from Ukraine in lieu of the ongoing war and harsh sanctions imposed by the West.
• The missile was launched from Plesetsk in North West Russia with the intended target in the Kamchatka peninsula almost 6,000 km away.
• The missile is believed to have at least five more launches in 2022 before being inducted into the Russian military.

How is Sarmat more advanced than the other Russian ICBMs?

• The RS-28 Sarmat (NATO name Satan-II) is reported to be able to carry ten or more warheads and decoys and has the capability of firing over either of the earth’s poles with a range of 11,000 to 18,000 km.
• It is expected to pose a significant challenge to the ground-and-satellite-based radar tracking systems of the western powers, particularly the USA.
• The ten warheads are Multiple Independently Targetable Re-entry Vehicles and each has a blast yield of .75 MT.
• The Sarmat will also be the first Russian missile which can carry smaller hypersonic boost-glide vehicles. These are manoeuvrable and hard to intercept.
• The upgraded electronic counter measures, guidance systems and alternative warhead carrying capacity makes the RS-28 Sarmat ICBM more lethal than the R-36M Voyevoda ICBMs (NATO name Satan) currently in service in Russia.
• While the height and weight of Sarmat ICBM is the same as in the older one, it has more speed and high throw weight.
• However, the Sarmat is a liquid fuelled missile as compared to US ICBMs which have moved on to solid fuel systems.

Naming of the Missile

• Sarmat is named after nomadic tribes that roamed the steppes of present-day Southern Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan in the early medieval period.
• Sarmatians were highly developed in horsemanship and warfare and their administrative capabilities and political expertise contributed to their gaining widespread influence and by the 5th century BC they held control of the land between the Urals and the Don River.
• In the 4th century they crossed the Don and conquered the Scythians, replacing them as rulers of almost all of southern Russia by the 2nd century.

Source:

• Explained: What is Russia’s new nuclear missile Sarmat, capable of striking ‘anywhere in the world’?
• Russia successfully test-fires Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile
• Putin rattles his 'Satan II' nuclear saber to hide Russian failures in Ukraine war: analysts

Image source:

• Russia test-fires new intercontinental ballistic missile