What is Satan II? Vladimir Putin test fires nuclear-capable ICBM as a 'present to Nato'
Russian President Vladimir Putin has made it very clear he's willing to use nuclear weapons in his war on Ukraine. Putin has made several veiled, and direct threats at the west, over their crippling sanctions and support for Ukraine. On April 20, 2022, Putin put those threats into action by test firing the fearsome Satan II intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).
On April 9, the President attended a funeral in Moscow with the nuclear football, which was seen by many as an attempt to strike more fear in the west. Just days after he launched the invasion, Putin also put Russia's nuclear forces on alert, then upped it to a higher state of alert in March. On March 1, reports also emerged that Putin had moved his family to a nuke-proof bunker in Siberia.
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Clearly furious by the lack of progress, Putin appears to be rattling the cage yet again, with a test launch of Satan II. It comes just after the USA authorized heavy weaponry for Ukraine, including Mi-17 helicopters, 155 mm Howitzer cannons, and Switchblade drones in a major shift in policy.
What is the Satan II?
The Satan II is a nuclear-capable Sarmat RS-28, believed to be the longest range ICBM in existence. Each missile can carry around 10 warheads, and strike a target as far away as 11,200 miles. Furthermore, the Satan II is designed to elude anti-missile defense systems, making it extremely hard to track. It has been in development since the 2000s and has been dubbed the "most powerful missile with the longest range of destruction" by the Russian defense ministry.
The missile is part of Putin's next-generation missiles, which the President has called "invincible". Other missiles part of this development includes the Kinzhal and Avangard hypersonic missiles. The Kinzhal was used for the first time on the battlefield when Russia struck the Ivano-Frankivsk region and the Mykolaiv region in late March. In particular, the Satan II is Russia's response to the US Prompt Global Strike system, a system to launch an airstrike anywhere in the world within an hour.
Russia claims that the Satan II can overcome "all modern defense systems", which is why Putin has hailed the test as a "big, significant event" for Russia. The test was conducted at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome facility, a military facility in northern Russia around 500 miles north of Moscow. According to reports, the missile hit a target 3,600 miles away in the Kamchatka peninsula, in the far-east region of Russia near Japan.
Once fully armed, the Satan II could take out a region as large as France, but it appears that for now, the US isn't concerned about the test. US officials called it a "routine" test and dismissed global threat claims. That is despite Russia specifically hinting at the west in its comments about the launch. Dmitry Rogozin, director of the Russian space agency Roscosmos said the test was a "present to Nato and all sponsors of Ukro-Nazism." Putin himself said the Satan II will "ensure the security of Russia from external threats and make those who, in the heat of aggressive rhetoric, try to threaten our country, think twice."
However, experts have also pointed to another reason for the timing - Russia's Victory Day parade. Traditionally celebrated on May 9, the parade is meant to commemorate the surrender of Nazi Germany in 1945, but in recent years has become a chance for Putin to show off Russia's arsenal. It was believed Putin wanted to celebrate the capture of Ukraine at the parade, but now that it seems unlikely he has been forced to rethink his plans.
"The timing of the test reflects the Russians wanting to have something to show as a technological achievement in the lead-up to Victory Day, at a time when a lot of their technology has not delivered the results they would have liked in Ukraine," Jack Watling told The Daily Mail.