Russia Alerts ICBM Sarmat With US Nuclear Capable And Uncavable Missiles, Just Shocked?

ICBM RS-28 Sarmat Rusia. (Tube screenshot/Enjamul Hoque)

JAKARTA - Russian officials announced Sarmat's intercontinental ballistic missile system (ICBM) which is rumored to have advanced systems and outperformed the United States' flagship in the capability of the number of nuclear warheads carried, while experts cast doubt on the missile's readiness being used in the near future.

"Samart's strategic system has assumed a combat alert posture," said Head of Roscosmos Yury Borisov Friday on the sidelines of an open lecture organized by the Russian Society of Sciences, as reported by TASS September 1.

However, Roscosmos presentations demonstrated at the event show that the Sarmat ICBM system will be ready for combat next year.

Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced on February 23, Sarmat's ICBM system would enter service in Russia this year.

RS-28 Sarmat is Russia's advanced silo-based missile system, armed with a liquid propellant-fueled intercontinental ballistic missile capable of carrying nuclear warheads.

The missile was developed at the Makeyev State Rocket Center to replace the R-36M2 Voyevoda ICBM operating in Russia's Strategic Missile Forces since 1988.

Based on expert estimates, the missile, which has the unofficial nickname Satan II, is capable of delivering the MIRVed warhead weighing 10 tons to any location around the world, both in the North Pole and South Pole.

Meanwhile, Russian military analyst Pavel Luzin said the announcement meant that the missile had been stationed in silo and was ready for use. However, the readiness may be more "on paper" than true, he added, given Sarmat's limited number of tests, citing the Seattle Times of The New York Times.

Borisov himself did not provide details on what was meant by the "tight task", nor did he say how many missiles had been deployed or where.

Friday's announcement is considered by experts to be an attempt to send further political signals to the West that increasing Western aid to Ukraine could have dangerous consequences, even if Sarmat himself is not meant to be deployed to the Ukrainian battlefield.

"Kremlin fears its nuclear threat will no longer be useful and seeks to revive fear of Russian nuclear weapons in the US and Europe," Luzin said.

Meanwhile, experts on strategic competition with Russia and China at the Atlantic Council as well as professors of political science atLAy University Dr. Matthew Kroenig said Russia's fear of using nuclear weapons was once considered a Cold War relic. However, several factors have revived it as a military and diplomatic issue.

The factors include repeated threats from Russia to use nuclear weapons since the country invaded Ukraine last year, hostile relations between China and the United States, as well as the development of North Korea's missiles.

Kroenig said Sarmat was the culmination of Russia's modernization efforts, while US efforts to modernize had just begun. He noted that Uncle Sam's country still relies on the last Minuteman missile to be upgraded in the 1970s. In contrast to Russia's claim that Sarmat could carry 10 nuclear warheads, he added, Minuteman 'can only' carry three nuclear warheads.

In April 2022, Russia announced its success in launching Sarmat. At that time, President Vladimir Putin said the missile would show Russian enemies they needed to think twice before threatening their country.

This February, President Putin announced that his party was suspending Russia's participation in the new extended 2010 New START Agreement in 2021 and will end in 2026.