Russia's "tsar missile" ambitions falter: Sarmat tests expose flaws in defense industry

He spoke about this on Espreso TV.

“This is an extremely interesting story because it seems the Russians have a 'tsar cannon' and a 'tsar bell,' and now they were aiming to create a 'tsar missile.' Paradoxically, in April 2022, this missile was accepted into service by the Russian army and should have already been in production. Interestingly, the tests in 2022 were among the few successful ones, and the Russian side used these to intimidate our European partners with the threat of nuclear weapons. The Sarmat missile was intended to replace Russia's stationary ballistic missiles, which were originally developed and manufactured in Ukraine. We are talking about the SS-18 missiles, which were produced at Pivdenmash (a leading Ukrainian enterprise for the production of rocket and space equipment and technologies - ed.). Regarding missiles, the ground-based component in Russia still relies on our Ukrainian-made missiles, which have not been serviced for a long time,” the military expert noted.

According to him, the SS-18 was intended to be replaced by the Sarmat missile, which weighs approximately 200 tons, has a warhead weight of 10 tons, and can travel up to 16,000 kilometers. In other words, it was designed to be the most intimidating element in the Russian triad of nuclear forces within the ground component.

“Now this missile, which was supposed to be put into service in Russia, is exploding during another test. This undermines what the Kremlin had previously claimed about it, revealing that none of it is true. These tests indicate that the actual state of completion of this missile is quite dismal. The trend suggests that, at this stage, the Russian defense industry is struggling to produce technologically sophisticated weapons. The situation with the Sarmat and other developments reflects a realistic assessment of the current capabilities of the Russian defense industry,” summarized Zgurets.

• On September 21, satellite images revealed that the shaft of the Yubileynaya launch site was blown apart at the Plesetsk cosmodrome in the Arkhangelsk region of Russia. This incident occurred during a failed test of Russia's new RS-28 Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile.