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Russia carried out a successful test of its RS-28 Sarmt nuclear missile as part of Zapad-2017 on Thursday night, the country’s defense ministry said.

The exercise, known as Zapad-2017, is the latest iteration of a series of training maneuvers that began under the Soviet Union in the 1970s. After a long break following the collapse of communism, Zapad was revived in 1999 and then was expanded after Vladimir Putin became president at the end of that year.


Zapad, "west" in Russian, used to include military forces from countries under the Warsaw Pact, the Soviet-led military alliance whose non-Soviet members have now all joined Nato. Today, the military exercise has shrunk to just two participants — Russia and Belarus — but it is still viewed warily by military planners in the West.


It has been developed by Russian missile design company the Makeyev Design Bureau.

In this video, Defense Updates analyses why it the most powerful missile in the world ?


NAMING & NEED

The RS-28 Sarmat is due to replace Soviet R-36M missiles which Nato experts nicknamed “Satan” meaning the devil.

The R-36M was viewed by US analysts as giving the Soviet Union first strike advantage over the US.

“Satan 2” is the name given to its more deadly replacement that is the RS-28 Sarmat.


Sarmat is being designed specifically to penetrate any current or future BMD system.
It is Russia’s answer to this strategic problem, and will enable Russia to maintain the nuclear deterrence vis-à-vis United States and NATO.
According to Russia’s military, “‘It can beat any defenses’ and wipe out entire countries “.


PRODUCTION & DEPLOYMENT


At the end of June 2015, it was reported that the production schedule for the first prototype of the Sarmat was slipping. The RS-28 Sarmat was expected to become operational in 2016.

On 10 August 2016, Russia successfully tested the RS-28's first-stage engine named PDU-99 .The first image of this new missile was declassified and unveiled in October 2016.

In May last year it was reported that the production process had been accelerated and that the missiles would make up 100% of Russia's fixed land-based nuclear arsenal by 2021.

PROPELLANT/SPEED/WEIGHT

Sarmat uses Liquid Propellant the exact nature of which is classified.
The missile has a speed of over Mach 20.7 .It weigh in at a massive 100 tons, making it the heaviest missile in the world. To give viewers a perspective, the US land based strategic missile LGM-30 Minuteman 3, has a weight of 35 tons approximately.



WARHEADS


Speaking to Radio Sputnik, Alexei Leonov a military expert and commercial director of “Arsenal of the Fatherland” magazine provide insight about the missile.

The military expert emphasized that Sarmat will serve as a reliable deterrent. Leonkov highlighted the particular interest of the US and European mainstream media towards the Russian missile, which was dubbed the "devil in disguise", "Satan" and "weapons of nuclear hell."

Leonov said, “Let them call it what they want. The [Sarmat] missile system which is about to enter into service is a fifth generation system. Its characteristics are so impressive that our opponents have reason to be afraid of it. According to some estimates, the missile's striking range is up to 18,000 kilometers [11,184.6 miles]. It also has a large number of divided parts, from 10 to 15 warheads, each with a capacity of up to 750 kilotons. They will fly to their target at hypersonic speeds performing maneuvers so that the existing American missile defense system would be incapable of intercepting them”.

Little Boy atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima had a yield of 15 kt of TNT. Samrat’s cumulative explosive power will be 15 warheads multiply by 750 kt that is around 11,000 kt of TNT

The Russian news outlet Sputnik reported in May that an RS-28 rocket is “capable of wiping out parts of the Earth the size of France or Texas”. And by the these figures its seems that the analysis is correct.

Leonov expressed his confidence that the Krasnoyarsk Machine-Building Plant will hit its deadline and Sarmat will enter service on schedule.



HIGHLY PROTECTED

Land Based missiles are vulnerable to preemptive strikes and hence Russian experts are going great lengths to shield it.
The Sarmat’s silos will be protected by active protection measures including 100 guns capable of firing a metallic cloud of 40,000 30 mm bullets to an altitude of up to 6 km. The Russians are also planning to protect the Sarmat with their new S-500 air defense systems.

S-500 system can detect incoming ballistic missiles or aircrafts at a range of 2000 km. It designed to intercept them at a range of 500-600 km.


Finally, the missile's preparation to launch is under 60 seconds utilizing a highly automated launch system. All in, the Sarmat will be the best protected silo-based intercontinental ballistic missile ever put into service worldwide.

Audio by Scott Leffler -- scottleffler.com"