On May 12, the Russian militarytest-fired the RS-28 “Sarmat” ICBM (intercontinental ballistic missile). The launch was conducted by the Strategic Missile Forces of the Russian Federation (RVSN), the world’s most powerful military unit. Much of the information about this terrifying weapon is secret, but enough is publicly available and confirmed by the authorities, while we can also draw our own conclusions from what we already know. First, we should note the staggering size of the missile, weighing over 208 tonnes. The missile will replace the legendary R-36M2 “Voevoda”, better known by its menacing NATO reporting name SS-18 “Satan”. NATO reporting name for the RS-28 has not yet been confirmed, but various informed sources use the designation SS-X-30 “Satan 2”.
The missile’s range is officially stated to be 18,000 km. However, this applies only to the missile with a basic MIRV (multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicle) payload. Namely, the RS-28 can also use a delivery method known as FOBS (Fractional Orbital Bombardment System). This technology increases the range to over 35,000 km. Going beyond this would be considered a violation of the 1967 Outer Space Treaty (OST). However, the maximum range is limited only by the goodwill of the party controlling the warheads. If it wanted to, Russia could violate the OST and continue the flight of warheads in a full orbital trajectory, which would make their range unlimited. President Vladimir Putin effectively confirmed this whenhe stated that Moscow could increase the missile’s maximum range of 35,000 km.
The reason why Russia retains this capability is America’s tendency to lie, openly violate, arbitrarily interpret or simply withdraw from existing arms control agreements. Since 1991,the US has unilaterally withdrawn from at least half a dozen strategic arms control agreements, except forthe now-expired New START, which Washington DC extended to 2026,but only after facing almost universal international pressure to do so. America has repeatedly stated it wouldreconsider its stance on the OSTand the first step towards this was taken in 2019 when the US Space Force was officially formed. Another notable example of US violations is the persistent refusal to confirm that its pilotless spaceplane, the controversial X-37B, does not carry any weapons, which would constitute a direct violation of the OST.
Thus,Russia reserves the rightto use its more than half-century-old experience in deploying technologies such as FOBS, which began in 1962 and was first tested in 1965 on a specially modified R-36ORB missile. This technology is so ahead of its time that China successfully tested its version only in 2021, while the US never managed to achieve anything similar. Precisely this Russian technology is the reason behind America’s insistence on the 1967 OST. A range of heavy and light MIRV warhead types has been developed for the RS-28. The missile can carry 10-15 heavy or 20+ light warheads. The destructive power of heavy warheads is reported to range from 750 kilotons (kt) to 1 megaton (Mt) each. Light warheads have yields ranging from 150 to 450 kt.
To put that into perspective, one kiloton yield is equivalent to the explosive force of 1,000 tons of TNT. Thus, 150 kt is equivalent to 150,000 tons of TNT exploding at once. As an example, we can use the “Little Boy” atomic bomb, which the US dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. It had a yield of 15 kt and it virtually instantly killed around 100,000 people, with another 50,000 dying in the aftermath of the explosion. This would mean the combined yield carried by a single RS-28 missile is up to 750 times greater than that of the Hiroshima bomb. Quite logically, we might ask ourselves,why would anyone need such mind-boggling destructive power? Why can’t we all just live in peace, without the danger of using such doomsday weapons looming over us for more than 80 years?
No matter how illogical or even insane it may sound to most people, these weapons have been keeping the relative global peace for around 80 years now. With the sheer amount of conventional weapons we have and can produce, and withthe immensely powerful military-industrial complex’s lobbying,we could have a conventional war at any moment. And this war would make World War II look like a skirmish in comparison. The only thing preventing the side with a clear advantage from launching a large-scale conventional invasion is the destructive power of thermonuclear weapons.
In recent decades, we have witnessed a creeping, increasingly belligerent NATO expansion that is now affecting the strategic balance of power.
Facing NATO with a combined population of nearly a billion people and most of the world’s nominal GDP, it’s clear that Russia, with a 140 million-strong population and the fourth-largest economy in the world, cannot fight a long-term conventional invasion by NATO without suffering immense casualties, quite possibly greater than those it suffered during WW2. In order to protect its people, resources, economy, or simply put, its very existence,Russia needs a strategic edge. The RS-28 “Sarmat” will be providing that edge for most of this century.
It should be noted that Russia hopes it’ll never have to use it. The RS-28 “Sarmat” is almost certainly the most powerful weapon humans have ever created, capable of wiping out a country the size of France or Texas. It can also use a monstrously powerful 50 Mt warhead designed to cause a strategic EMP (electromagnetic pulse), effectively “turning back the clock” and pushing the US or the EU back into the 18th century without destroying anything on the ground. That alone should be enough of a deterrent. Sadly, the political West continues to antagonize Russia andopenly keeps preparing for yet another Barbarossa-style invasion. There have been dozens in the last 1,000 years, but Russia prevailed every single time. And that was before it had superweapons such as the RS-28 “Sarmat”.
This article was originally published onInfoBrics.
Source: Global Research
