Cold War? If you want a dose of it, you no longer have to look for it in the 20th century. Relations between Russia and the United States are going through a very complicated phase, courtesy of the civil war in Syria and an American election campaign worthy of a Netflix miniseries. In what could be interpreted as a 'delicate moment' for its great geopolitical rival, Russia decided to respond with a classic show of force, revealing new information about the RS-28 Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile, also known by the designation Satan 2.
The Nuclear Balance
The current strategic arsenal of the Russian Federation is estimated at about 1,790 nuclear warheads. The number for the United States is very similar, 1,930. For logical reasons, it's impossible to know the exact values on both sides, and beyond any fluctuation, the concept of Mutual Assured Destruction remains firm. At the end of the day, neither side has viable reasons to press the symbolic "red button", because with almost four thousand ICBMs in the air, any crazy idea of "victory" evaporates immediately. But the game doesn't end. Each player keeps moving pieces, sacrificing others, and of course, placing new ones on the board. In the case of Russia, the "novelty" is the nuclear missile RS-28 Sarmat, which in Western countries is better known as Satan 2.
The RS-28 Sarmat
I say "novelty" because if memory serves me right, the RS-28 Sarmat has been in development for about eight or nine years. It's supposed that this ballistic missile arose as a response to the US Prompt Global Strike project, which explores using conventional weapons with hypersonic capability in the same way as an ICBM. In addition to Satan 2, we also find the S-500 Prometeo missile system, which in theory would be capable of intercepting such hypersonic weapons. Returning to Satan 2, its "formal presentation" by the Makeyev Design Bureau was quite austere. From this point on, the data loses a bit of precision. Several portals indicate a maximum payload of 40-50 megatons, but it's necessary to highlight that Satan 2 qualifies as MIRV, therefore, that power would be distributed among ten or fifteen warheads. Calculations on its operational range point to about ten thousand kilometers, with a maximum speed greater than Mach 20.
Replacing the SS-18
The plan is for the RS-28 Sarmat / Satan 2 to replace its predecessor R-36, identified by NATO as the original SS-18 Satan. If we try to measure the destructive potential of these missiles, we can take the words of Paul Craig Roberts, who was Secretary of the Treasury during Ronald Reagan's presidency: An 'old' SS-18 could reduce 75% of New York to dust, while 'five or six' would do the same to the entire East Coast. As for Satan 2, just one would be enough to turn Texas to ashes, which by the way is the second largest state in the United States (behind Alaska). If there are no delays, the new missile will enter service before the end of 2018. Politics.
