Russian President Vladimir Putin touted its military capabilities on Wednesday, including a missile that could be deployed by the end of the year.
The 14-story-tall missile is locally known as “RS-28 Sarmat,” but NATO members recognize it as “Satan-2.” It allegedly has nuclear capabilities that cannot be matched by other countries.
“The Sarmat heavy intercontinental ballistic missile was successfully tested,” Putin told the Moscow graduating class. “It is planned that by the end of this year, the first such complex will be put on combat duty.”
In May, the Kremlin threatened to deploy Satan-2 missiles to strike Finland, the U.K. and the U.S., after Finnish President Sauli Niinisto signaled his country’s intention to join NATO.
“If Finland wants to join this bloc, then our goal is absolutely legitimate—to question the existence of this state. This is logical,” said Aleksey Zhuravlyov, deputy chairman of the Russian parliament’s defense committee. “If the United States threatens our state, it’s good: Here is the Sarmat for you, and there will be nuclear ashes from you if you think that Russia should not exist.
However, Putin later chickened out and backed down from his country’s objection to Sweden and Finland joining NATO.
“As far as expansion goes, including new members Finland and Sweden, Russia has no problems with these states — none. And so in this sense there is no immediate threat to Russia from an expansion to include these countries,” Putin said.
As Russia bulks up its nuclear arsenals, the U.S. is defunding development of its vital nuclear deterrent.
President Joe Biden recently defunded the Sea-Launched Cruise Missile-Nuclear (SLCM-N,) a proposed long-range cruise missile that can fly under the radar and can carry a warhead of variable yield.
It could launch from U.S. Navy tactical platforms, submarines, and surface ships, including nuclear-powered attack submarines (SSNs), guided missile cruisers, and destroyers.
The cruise missile was America’s best hope to mitigate Russia’s enormous advantage in tactical nuclear weapons, as the U.S. only has 100-200 tactical nuclear weapons compared to Russia’s 2,000-8,000 tactical nuclear weapons.
The foundational concept of nuclear deterrence started during the Cold War when the U.S. vowed to achieve significant advantages in the balance of nuclear power but now it appears the Biden administration is keen on believing its mantra that “nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought.”
