The Russian heavy intercontinental ballistic missile “Sarmat” is a combat-ready strategic weapon. This was expressed at a hearing in the US House of Representatives by General Glen Van Herk, head of the Joint Aviation Defense Command of North America (NORAD) and the US Northern Command.
Van Herck also talked about the tests of the Belgorod nuclear submarine, which can carry Poseidon unmanned underwater vehicles, designed to hit coastal targets at a distance of 1,000 km.
It is clear that both Sarmat and Poseidon are of great concern to the United States. Both Russian products pose a serious threat to America’s national security.
Let’s recall the main tactical and technical characteristics.
“Ready to start”
As before Wrote “Gazeta.ru” will replace heavy multi-stage liquid-fueled intercontinental missiles RS-28 “Sarmat”, stationary systems R-36M / R-36M2 “Voevoda” in the Strategic Missile Forces.
The new Russian missile will be able to attack targets from both the North Pole and the South Pole, bypassing the missile defense systems of a potential enemy.
Thanks to its almost unlimited firing range, the Sarmat ICBM will be able to hit targets from all directions. In addition, the missile has a short support phase, which makes it difficult for a potential enemy to be blocked by missile defense systems in the active phase of an ICBM flight.
“Sarmat” will be equipped with the most modern systems to overcome a wide range of high-efficiency nuclear weapons and missile defense, including hypersonic.
The effective range of destruction of enemy targets by “Sarmat” is 18 thousand km. The rocket has a launch weight of 208.1 tons, a payload of more than 10 tons, a fuel weight of 178 tons, a rocket length of 35.5 m, a diameter of 3 m, a warhead type individual multi-entry vehicle. routing units
The Sarmat ICBM can also be equipped with Avangard hypersonic floating blade warheads. This will allow the payload of the missile to approach enemy targets at hypersonic speeds and perform unpredictable course and altitude maneuvers. A potential enemy will not have weapons against such weapons in the historically foreseeable period.
In the 62nd Missile Uzhurskaya Red Banner Division (permanent deployment point – Solnechny, Krasnoyarsk Territory), named after the 60th Anniversary of the USSR, work has already begun to prepare the lead missile regiment for rearmament.
The plans of the Russian Ministry of Defense are to equip the Severo-Yenisei test site near the village for flight tests of the Sarmat missile system.
Now the most powerful intercontinental ballistic missiles in Russia are the R-36M / R-36M2 “Voevoda” (more than 40 launchers), developed and installed during the Soviet era by the Yuzhnoye Design Bureau (Dnepropetrovsk) under the leadership of Academician Alexei Utkin. Combat duty at the end of 1980 -s.
Products weighing 211 tons are capable of carrying 10 nuclear warheads of 0.5 megatons at a distance of 11 thousand km (with a monoblock warhead – 16 thousand km). At the same time, the shooting accuracy is plus or minus 500 meters.
The Voevoda intercontinental ballistic missile is designed to destroy any target protected by modern missile defense systems, even in combat use conditions, providing a guaranteed retaliatory attack, including multiple nuclear impacts on a positional area.
In Soviet times, the R-36M2 ICBMs were put into service with three missile divisions of the Strategic Missile Forces: the 13th in the village of Dombarovsky, Orenburg Region, the 38th in Derzhavinsk, Turgai Region, the Kazakh SSR, and the 62nd in the city of Uzhur, Krasnoyarsk Territory.
Now they remain on combat duty in two positional areas at Dombarovsky and Uzhur (Solnechny) in the version with a large number of re-entry vehicles, which is planned to remain on combat duty until the early 2020s.
The development of the promising RS-28, which will replace the Voevoda, was entrusted exclusively to domestic enterprises.
Creation in addition to SRC. VP Makeeva deals with NPO Mashinostroeniya from Reutov near Moscow and NPO Energomash, which is engaged in the development of engines. Deployment of RS-28 Sarmat missile systems is planned in the former position areas of Uzhur and Dombarovsk.
“Hit the cliff”
January of this year recognizedHe reported that the production of the first Poseidon unmanned underwater vehicle munitions for the Belgorod nuclear submarine has been completed recently. It has also been reported that the submarine crew has completed a series of launch tests for the Poseidon torpedo mock-up.
Poseidon is a giant self-propelled torpedo, also known as Status-6, NATO codename Canyon. The product is equipped with a nuclear power plant and a thermonuclear warhead.
2M39 “Poseidon” is a fully robotic high-speed (up to 200 km / h) deep-sea stealth nuclear submarine of miniature size (diameter 1.8 m, length 20 m, weight – about 100 tons). “Poseidon” is the largest torpedo in the world, it weighs 30 times more than the standard one.
Poseidon is so large that only specially converted submarines can carry him. These include the nuclear submarine K-329 “Belgorod”, which until now was the only representative of project 09852.
Also referred to as Poseidon, the Doomsday Torpedo has an almost unlimited range. The developers of the system are the Rubin Marine Engineering Central Design Bureau (JSC Central Design Bureau MT Rubin) and St. Petersburg Marine Engineering Bureau is Malachite. In state contracts, the project appears under the name “Cephalopod” (from the Latin Cephalopoda – “Octopus”).
The Poseidon unmanned underwater vehicle will pose a serious threat to US coastal cities such as New York and Los Angeles.
The Russian Ministry of Defense calls it a multi-purpose weapon and claims that this device can be used against carrier strike groups of the US Navy.
The nuclear submarine “Belgorod”, the carrier of 2M39 “Poseidon” self-propelled underwater vehicles, will serve to test the combat use of such weapons, as well as to gain experience in operating such carrier boats in the Russian Navy. Serial production and deployment in fleets of an already revised submarine project based on this nuclear submarine is planned.
The Belgorod nuclear submarine of project 09852, launched on April 23, 2019, is equipped with six Poseidon submarines. “Belgorod” – creative development of the nuclear submarine “Khabarovsk”.
The design of the submarine is classic – with two hulls. The main power plant of the submarine is probably nuclear, with a pressurized water reactor with a capacity of up to 190 MW. “Khabarovsk” will be equipped with a water jet, which is installed on all new submarines of the Russian fleet. This decision shows the desire of the developers to reduce the noise level of the submarine to the lowest possible level.
Probably the number of the crew of the submarine will be about 100 people. Other features of the ship are as follows: The length of the ship is approximately 113 m; width – more than 12 m; hull diameter – about 10 m Underwater displacement of the submarine – about 10 thousand tons Khabarovsk underwater speed – up to 32 knots. The viewing range is unlimited. Working immersion depth – not more than 500 m Autonomy – 90-120 days.
As for the weapons of Khabarovsk, the submarine, like Belgorod, is equipped with six 2P39 launchers for 2M39 Poseidon self-propelled underwater vehicles. There is reason to believe that the nuclear submarine is armed with a certain number of conventional 533 mm torpedo tubes for self-defense. In addition, there is evidence that Khabarovsk will receive both the Caliber-PL missiles and the Package-PL complex based on the Borey-M RPK SN with hypersonic Zircons. Allows the submarine to reflect the impact of enemy torpedoes and escape unharmed.
The West, of course, will need a lot of time to create new weapons that can compete on an equal footing with the Russian “Sarmatians” and “Poseidons”.
The opinion of the author may not coincide with the opinion of the editors.
Author biography:
Mikhail Mikhailovich Khodarenok is a military observer of socialbites.ca, a retired colonel.
Graduated from the Minsk Higher Engineering Anti-aircraft Missile School (1976),
Air Defense Military Command Academy (1986).
Commander of the S-75 anti-aircraft missile battalion (1980–1983).
Deputy commander of an anti-aircraft missile regiment (1986–1988).
Senior officer of the Main Staff of the Air Defense Forces (1988–1992).
Chief of the General Staff Main Operations Directorate (1992–2000).
Graduate of the Military Academy of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces (1998).
Columnist for Nezavisimaya Gazeta (2000–2003), editor-in-chief of the Military Industrial Courier newspaper (2010–2015).