The last bitch. Russia has tested the Satan 2 ballistic missile
The United States believes that Russia carried out a test with a nuclear-armable intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) when Biden was in Ukraine. According to CNN sources, the test failed
Russia “conducted an ICBM test” while US President Biden was in Ukraine on Monday, but it failed.
This was revealed by CNN , citing sources according to which the test "did not pose a risk to the United States".
Biden traveled to Kiev on Monday in a visit staged to mark US support for Ukraine as the first anniversary of the Russian invasion approaches. According to the sources, Moscow warned Washington in advance about testing the heavy SARMAT missile – dubbed Satan II in the West and capable of delivering multiple nuclear warheads. But US officials told CNN they did not consider the launch an escalation. Also, the test launch would have failed. Otherwise, yesterday Putin would have mentioned its launch in his annual message to the nation, the first since the invasion of Ukraine, according to the sources.
However, the Russian president has formally stated that Russia will suspend his country's participation in the New START nuclear arms reduction treaty with the United States.
All the details.
THE MOSCOW MISSILE TEST
The Russian Federation reportedly carried out a test launch of a Sarmat intercontinental missile (ICBM) during the visit of the President of the United States, Joe Biden, to Ukraine. Anonymous sources told broadcaster CNN that the test would not have been successful. According to the sources, the operation would not have posed "any risk", nor would it have been considered as a sign of escalation in relations between the two countries.
THE SATAN II
So Moscow allegedly tested the Sarmat ICBM, known as Satan II, already tested in the past.
Introduced for the first time in 2016 and designed as a successor to the R-36M Voevoda ICBM, according to Russian state media the missile has a range of 10-11 thousand kilometers. It can carry a warhead weighing 100 tons.
THIS TIME WITHOUT SUCCESS
Putin has announced successful ICBM tests in the past, including last April, weeks after Russia invaded Ukraine. Jeffrey Lewis, a professor of nuclear non-proliferation at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in Monterey, California, told Insider at the time that the Sarmat missile test is "sort of like a throwback to the Cold War."
Therefore, according to analysts, Putin would have highlighted the test of the heavy SARMAT missile in his State of the Union speech if it had been successful.
MOSCOW SUSPENDS THE NEW START TREATY
At the same time, Putin announced in his speech that Russia was suspending participation in the New Start treaty. The New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New Start) is a treaty on the limitation of nuclear weapons signed by the United States and Russia in Prague on April 8, 2010.
However, the Russian president insisted that it was a suspension, not a withdrawal from the treaty.
Therefore, senior officials of the Biden administration have highlighted that Putin's move will not change the status quo since the inspections – foreseen by the Treaty – are not carried out as early as 2020.
EXPERT COMMENT
"Putin was keen to underline that it is only a suspension," General Mario Arpino, former Chief of Staff of the Air Force and Defense, commented to Startmag . “This suspension doesn't change anything. No one had intended to use these weapons, not even Putin" adds Arpino "There is nothing worrying, the modernization of theater weapons was already doing it, the Americans also continued to do so: the armaments located here in Europe were recently upgraded".
"Putin's announcement certainly has a concrete value, but more political than anything else" underlined General Vincenzo Camporini , former Chief of Staff of the Air Force and Defense.
According to William Alberque, military expert at the International Institute of Strategic Studies (IISS) “both sides could immediately go from 1,550 strategic warheads deployed to 4,000. This could happen overnight,” Reuters reports.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/innovazione/lultima-putinata-la-russia-ha-testato-un-missile-balistico-satan-2/ on Wed, 22 Feb 2023 10:09:10 +0000.