Explained: What is Russia’s new nuclear missile Sarmat, capable of striking ‘anywhere in the world’?

What is the News?

Russia has successfully tested its new Inter Continental Ballistic Missile(ICBM) named “Sarmat”.

What is Sarmat?

Sarmat is an Inter Continental Ballistic Missile(ICBM) developed by Russia. The missile has been nicknamed as “Satan II” by the West.

Named After: It is named after nomadic tribes that roamed the steppes of present-day Southern Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan in the early medieval period.

Purpose: It is designed to elude anti-missile defence systems with a short initial boost phase giving enemy surveillance systems a tiny window to track.

Key Features

Range: It is a three-stage, liquid-fueled missile with a range of 18,000 km.

Warheads: It can be deployed with 10 or more warheads on each missile.

It will be the first Russian missile which can carry smaller hypersonic boost-glide vehicles. These are manoeuvrable and hard to intercept. 

Significance of this missile

The missile is expected to pose a significant challenge to the ground-and-satellite-based radar tracking systems of the western powers, particularly the USA.

Source: This post is based on the article “Explained: What is Russia’s new nuclear missile Sarmat, capable of striking ‘anywhere in the world’?” published in Indian Express on 21st April 2022.