Ololade Adeyanju/
Russia carried out a successful test of its Satan 2 nuclear missile on Thursday night.
The rocket, also known as RS-28 Sarmat, was fired from the Plestek Cosmodrome and travelled 3,600 miles before hitting a target on the Kura test range, the Russian defence ministry said.
The Sarmat next generation intercontinental ballistic missile can “beat any defences” and wipe out entire countries, according to Russia’s military.
The weapon has been in the pipeline since 2009 and is now ready after several setbacks, with initial trials to be carried out before the end of the year, sources claim.
The weapon could be in use by 2019 – 2020.
It would be capable of delivering warheads of 40 megatons – 2,000 times as powerful as the atom bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.
Three submarines capable of carrying nuclear warheads also carried out successful ballistic missile tests, while three bombers hit ground targets with cruise missiles.
Two of the submarine-launched missiles were fired in the Okhotsk Sea, north of Japan and close to North Korea, the country’s military disclosed.
A third missile was fired from the Barents Sea, in the Arctic Ocean.
Russian military forces “have carried out an exercise to manage its strategic nuclear forces,” the ministry said in a statement.
Strategic bombers Tu-160, Tu-95MC and Tu-22M3 also took off from several Russian air bases and launched cruise missiles.
The rockets hit “ground-based” targets in Kamchatka, eastern Russia, in the Komi Republic, in the north, and on Russian military terrain in Kazakhstan.
“All objectives of the training have been successfully completed,” the statement said.
In early September, Russia test fired two more next-generation nuclear missiles, named Topol, from the Plestek Cosmodrome.
The Satan 2 Ballistic Missile 