Putin’s Satan II ballistic missile ‘blows up during test launch’

A Russian RS-28 Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile likely failed during a test earlier this month, according to arms experts and satellite imagery from the launch site.

Maxar satellite images from 21 September show a crater about 60 meters wide at the launch silo at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia and damage around the area that was not visible in imagery from earlier in the month.

It was not clear from the imagery if the liquid-fueled Sarmat failed during a launch or if there was an accident during defuelling.

“By all indications, it was a failed test. It’s a big hole in the ground,” said Pavel Podvig, an analyst based in Geneva, who runs the Russian Nuclear Forces project.

“There was a serious incident with the missile and the silo.”

The 35-meter RS-28 Sarmat, known as Satan II, has a range of 18,000km and a launch weight of over 208 tonnes.

It can carry up to 16 multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicle nuclear warheads as well as some Avangard hypersonic glide vehicles, according to Russian media.