Mark Galeotti Mark Galeotti

Why Putin’s ‘Satanic’ missile launch matters

The Satan II is fast enough to hit London in 13 minutes

In some ways, it’s a headline-writer’s dream: Putin puts his faith in Satan. In reality, it’s actually Putin’s new RS-28 Sarmat (‘Sarmatian’) heavy intercontinental ballistic missile, which has become colloquially known in western circles as the ‘Satan II’. It is intended as a replacement for the R-36M, which in Nato parlance is known as the SS-18 ‘Satan.’

Following a successful test on Wednesday Putin asserted that the missile would not only ‘reliably ensure Russia’s security from external threats’ but that it would ‘provide food for thought for those who, in the heat of frenzied aggressive rhetoric, try to threaten our country.’

It is certainly true that it is a powerful, next generation weapon. It has an estimated range of 18,000km (11,000 miles), travels fast enough to hit London in 13 minutes (depending on where it is fired from), and can carry up to 15 separate warheads, a mix of nuclear bombs, Avangard hypersonic glide bombs and decoys.

The missile has been in development since 2009, but whatever it means for Russia’s military arsenal, it certainly has an important place in Putin’s rhetorical one. Back in 2018, to spice up an otherwise dull state-of-the-nation address, he unveiled six ‘magic weapons,’ from a nuclear-powered cruise missile to an air defence laser. Some of these are of questionable value or are still essentially untried, but the Sarmat was already at a late stage of development, and was a safer bet – and Putin accompanied his announcement with a computer animation of one launching a strike on then-President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.

The Sarmat is hard to target with anti-missile defences, and while its development is a natural element of the overhaul of Russia’s missiles – the original RS-36 dates back to the 1960s –in part it was also spurred by Moscow’s overblown fears about US anti-ballistic missile defences.

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