01 March 2024 , 10:14
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Putin's 'doomsday' nuclear rocket has been hit by Western sanctions on its key components as footage emerged showing one missile system dramatically overturning in an embarrassing mishap.
The Sarmat rocket, known in the West as Satan-2, was already "in service with troops", the warlord boasted in a direct threat to the West, as he told Russians: “We will soon demonstrate them in the combat duty mode at their deployment bases.”
But mounting evidence suggests the “unstoppable” apocalypse 208-ton intercontinental silo-launched 15,880mph nuclear weapon, the size of a 14-storey tower block, is far from ready for use. An expected test flight by the world’s biggest ballistic missile over the South Pole has not happened.
Russian Telegram channel VChK-OGPU reported: “The Krasnoyarsk Machine-Building Plant is experiencing a serious shortage of electronic components….for production of the strategic missiles. The electronics of the new RS 28 [Sarmat] missile system are largely of foreign origin and, due to sanctions, [they] are experiencing a serious shortage.
The Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile (Dmitry Rogozin/east2west news)“Now all efforts are being made to somehow correct the situation with the supply of sanctioned electronics.” This has hit Russian production of S-400 air defence missiles, used in the war with Ukraine.
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The report says that Satan-2 - which carries ten nuclear warheads of 750 kilotons each - has only had a limited number of successful tests ahead of deployment. Its deployment on combat duty late last year was more in hope than expectation.
“The missiles can be counted on one hand and it is unknown how they will behave during launches,” said the channel. Earlier there were reports that it should be tested with a chilling flight over the South Pole - which has not yet happened.
Putin’s own state news agency TASS reported last year that “even a truncated LCI [flight development tests], and assuming all launches are successful, would require several more launches, including via the South Pole”. Only one fully confirmed successful test of the monster super-heavy nuclear weapon is known - in April 2022.
The missile's launch in April 2022 (kremlin.ru/ East2west News)It comes as video emerged showing the moment a Russian Pantsir-S1 air defence missile system overturns as its mobile carrier takes a corner too fast in Sochi. The embarrassing accident was close to Vladimir Putin's official Black Sea residence Bocharov Ruchey in the resort city.
Reports say the mobile complex was on “combat duty” and rushing to protect the Russian dictator who is due in Sochi on Friday. The accident was also in the same region - Krasnodar - as his secret £1 billion cliff-top palace at Gelendzhik which is hidden from ordinary Russians.
Kyiv military expert Oleksandr Kovalenko, of the Information Resistance Group, said after Putin’s speech that Satan-2 “is unreliable and dangerous”. He told RBC-Ukraine: “It's a very problematic missile. The Russians couldn't even manage test launches.
Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu visits the Sarmat production facilities in Krasnoyarsk region (MOD/east2west news)“When they launched a model at 30 metres to check the powder booster, they couldn't prepare in time. And overall, there was only one full-scale test of Sarmat., although during Soviet times, intercontinental ballistic missiles were tested for years.
“There were dozens of tests with constant error correction.” The Sarmat-Satan-2 complex is due to replace the Voevoda - or Satan - missile which has been in service since the 1980s. The R-36M2 Voevoda missile was tested no less than 17 times in the Cold War before it was put on combat duty.
The Pantsir-S1 air defence system meanwhile is known to be used to defend Putin’s official residences and private palaces from potential Ukrainian kamikaze drones or missiles. Previously, the state-of-the-art complex has been pictured close to Putin homes in mountain-and-sea resort Sochi along with forest palace Valdai in northern Russia, as well as Novo-Ogaryevo, in Moscow region.