Russia’s RS-28 Sarmat intercontinental missile explodes during test

On September 21, reports emerged of another significant victory for the Ukrainian Defense Forces: the destruction of another Russian arsenal belonging to the Main Missile and Artillery Directorate (GRAU). This facility, spanning 2.6 sq. km, was a major ammunition storage site and reportedly one of the warehouses for artillery rounds received from North Korea.

Several media outlets suggested that the explosion may have destroyed Russia's RS-28 Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), also referred to as Satan II, with Russian state-run media serving as the primary source of these claims.

However, new satellite imagery, released on September 22, suggests a different story. The images indicate that while an RS-28 missile did indeed explode, this occurred in a completely different location and under entirely different circumstances than initially reported.

OSINT analyst MT_Anderson shared satellite photos of Russia's Plesetsk cosmodrome, showing the aftermath of what appears to be a failed test of the RS-28 ICBM, likely occurring between September 20 and 22, 2024. The commentary to the image was provided by user MeNMyRC on X.com social media.

The pictures reveal that the missile firing was carried out from a silo launcher, but the test went wrong, resulting in a massive detonation that left nothing but a crater on the launch site.

Such an explosion during an ICBM test is an exceptionally rare event, typically occurring only once in a half-century. The last comparable incident was the explosion during the first test launch of the Soviet R-16 ICBM in October 1960 at the Baikonur cosmodrome.

Despite the obvious evidence, including the crater at the Sarmat launch site, 

It’s unlikely that Russia will officially acknowledge this disaster, despite the obvious evidence, the Defense Express company notes. The Kremlin has long promoted the RS-28 Sarmat as a central pillar of its deterrence strategy and a key threat to the West, frequently showcasing the missile in military drills, parades, and other public displays.

The Sarmat has only had one confirmed successful test launch, however the Russian Ministry of Defense declared the missile operational back in 2021.

While details of the Sarmat remain classified, key specifications are publicly known, largely due to Kremlin's media outlets. As summarized by the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, the RS-28 Sarmat weighs 208 tons, with a payload capacity of about 10 tons. It can reportedly carry a range of warheads, including unitary, multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles (MIRV), or hypersonic glide vehicles.

“What the Russian media often fail to mention, however, is the missile’s practical performance, which has been statistically five times less successful than North Korea’s intercontinental ballistic missile tests,” Defense Express concludes.