The US must launch 500 warheads to intercept Russia's Sarmat missile?
The former Russian air force commander said the US would have to spend a lot of resources to successfully intercept the Sarmat ballistic missile.
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Russian Sarmat ICBM fires during a test launch. Photo:Sputnik. |
Chairman of the Russian Senate's Defense and Security Committee Viktor Bondarev, a former commander of the country's air force, said on March 22 that the US missile shield system would have to launch at least 500 missiles to intercept a Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) of Moscow, according toRIA Novosti.
"This is the conclusion of Western experts," Mr. Bondarev declared, but did not specifically name these experts.
He also affirmed that Russia's latest Kinzhal hypersonic missile complex can penetrate all air defense systems to attack enemy targets.
The Russian official's statement was made in the context of US Strategic Command Commander John Hyten recently admitting that Washington currently has no defense measures that can counter hypersonic weapons attacks from Russia and China.
The RS-28 Sarmat ICBM was developed to replace the R-36M2 Veovoda, a giant 210-ton ICBM that has been obsolete since the Soviet era. An unnamed Russian official said the Sarmat has a range of over 11,000 km, can carry 10-15 nuclear warheads with a total yield equivalent to 50 million tons of TNT, and many decoy devices to fool enemy defense systems.
The warheads have a maximum speed of 24,900 km/h, using an independent guidance system to attack multiple targets. They can change direction during the re-entry phase to avoid interception. Russia will likely equip the Sarmat with a hypersonic glide vehicle (HGV) to increase its effective range and power.
