Ololade Adeyanju/
Russia has showcased six new cutting-edge missile systems just days after meeting with US President Donald Trump in Helsinki.
Video footage released today shows missiles being tested across the country, including the Kremlin’s newest Sarmat heavy intercontinental missile which has a reach across the entire planet.
In the video, which shows the extent of the modernisation of Vladimir Putin’s armoury, the bright checkered-coated missile is seen leaving its launch silo.
The liquid-fueled, superheavy thermonuclear armed intercontinental ballistic missile was developed to replace the old SS-18 Satan missile.
The hypersonic weapon is capable of striking targets via both the North and South poles. Putin has said this will be combat ready in 2020.
This and the other missile systems showcased today by the Russian defence ministry will ‘beef up our strategic forces in the foreseeable future’, he promised in May.
Sarmat ‘allows the use of all types of individually targeted warheads, including those still on the drawing board,’ said Russia’s Strategic Missile Forces Commander, Colonel General Sergei Karatayev.
It will unleash 10 large warheads or 16 smaller ones, or a combination of both.
Another new missile, the hypersonic Kinzhal, travels at ten times the speed of sound and is currently undergoing tests in southern Russia.
It is launched from a high-altitude MiG-31 fighter jet and can be fitted with nuclear or conventional weapons with an effective range of 1,250 miles.
Some 350 training missions have been conducted by the military unit tasked with testing the Kinzhal.
Yet another hypersonic missile complex, the Avangard, is in an early test phase with underground silos being adapted for its use.
The missile is said to be capable to withstanding high temperatures near a potential target.
Also displayed is the ‘Burevestnik’ nuclear propulsion system for Russian cruise missiles with ‘unlimited range and unlimited ability to manoeuvre’, according to Sergey Pertsev, a developer.
Meanwhile the Poseidon drone submarine – with a miniature nuclear propulsion system – is shown undergoing a static test. The submarine is seen as a giant nuclear-capable torpedo.
But its top secret propeller has been blurred out in the video so its secret is not given away to watchers in the West.
‘Unique characteristics of the Poseidon system will help the Navy to successfully combat aircraft carriers and strike groups of a potential adversary in any oceanic theatre of war and destroy shore infrastructure facilities,’ said Admiral Igor Katasonov, the chief analyst of the General Staff.
Video footage was also released by the Defence Ministry of the truck mounted Peresvet ‘combat laser system’ announced by Putin in March.
It boasts a canon-like device which is believed to be a devastating laser.
State-funded broadcaster RT said: ‘The exact purpose of the complex is still kept secret.
‘It might be a jamming system, which can “blind” the optical electronic equipment of enemy vehicles with a laser beam, since several prototypes of such systems have been developed by the Soviet Union.’
A generation ago, Russia was virtually bankrupt as it emerged from the Soviet Union, with its military machine incapable to competing with America’s – and these newly-released clips aim to show that Moscow is on the way back.
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