Putin plotting to test 16,000mph hypersonic Satan-2 nuclear missile by ‘end of year’ – and it could hit UK in 6 MINUTES

VLADIMIR Putin is said to be plotting a second test of his unstoppable hypersonic Satan-2 nuclear missile by the end of the year.

The world-ending RS-28 Sarmat missile can blast targets at almost 16,000mph - meaning it has the potential to obliterate the United Kingdom 1,600 miles away in just six minutes.

Politician Aleksey Zhuravlyov previously threatened to nuke Britain with the Satan-2 hypersonic missile in a matter of minutes and wipe out Finland in just ten.

Russia had earlier boasted that the beast - which can carry 15 warheads and drop multiple nukes in a single terrifying strike - would be fully deployed by the end of the year.

But plans for a second test by the end of December has sparked rumours of embarrassing delays in the production of the killer 200-ton rocket.

A Russian defence ministry spokesperson told state news agency TASS: "The flight-design tests of the Sarmat may continue before the end of this year with a second test launch to be potentially carried out."

After a successful first test in April, Mad Vlad, 70, claimed the nuke missile can "break through any defences" - and would "force those who try to threaten Russia to think twice".

During the launch, footage showed the enormous 115ft missile being launched from an underground silo, triggering an enormous fireball.

It travelled almost the entire length of Russia - almost 3,600 miles - in around 15 minutes.

In May, Dmitry Rogozin, the former director of Russian space agency Roscosmo and a close Putin ally, said almost 50 Satan-2 missiles were in "mass production" and would soon be on combat duty.

He boasted the missiles can demolish "half of the US coast" in a sinister slide show to schoolchildren.

Rogozin also threatened direct strikes on Downing Street and the White House in a bizarre online rant during the Nato summit.

He published satellite images and map coordinates of the summit venue in Madrid, as well as the Nato HQ in Brussels and "decision-making centres" in London, Washington, Paris and Berlin.

Another major test for Satan-2 was scheduled for June and locals near the Kura test range were warned to stay away from the target site in remote Kamchatka - but the launch never happened.

Rogozin insisted at the time: "We are absolutely on schedule, we are now preparing for the second flight test of the Sarmat.”

And in July, Rogozin visited the Krasmash defence factory in Krasnoyarsk, in eastern Siberia, which he branded the "Doomsday Plant", to inspect the process of preparing Satan-2 for flight tests.

The missile was rolled out into a forest for the cameras, and sabre-rattling Rogozin said: "The world’s most powerful global-range nuclear-tipped missile is being prepared for new tests."

But the following month Rogozin was fired for unknown reasons with a promised new job from the Kremlin yet to arrive.

He has been seen on the frontlines of the Ukraine war - but he has no new major role.

His successor, ex-deputy premier Yury Borisov, has repeated claims the missile is in mass production.

Last month, Russia agreed to allow US teams to inspect the missile under international agreements - but only by February 2024.

Meanwhile, defence analysts have pointed out that Russia’s earlier R-36M2 Voevoda missile was tested 17 times before it was deployed.

And another missile - RT-2PM Topol - was tested a dozen times before deployment. 

Defence expert Leonid Nersisyan said: "The truth of the terms bandied about by Rogozin — that Sarmat is in mass production and is soon to be placed on ‘combat duty’ — appear dubious.

"It is far likelier that Sarmat will undergo the same testing, prototyping and experimentation programme as its predecessors.

"Actual acceptance of the ICBM into service with the Strategic Missile Forces looks impossible before the end of 2022 and is hardly achievable by 2024."

Russia has bragged that "Satan-2" is able to overcome any missile defence systems.

Officials said it has the capability to use trajectories and unpredictable routes that “substantially impede their destruction even by advanced missile defence systems".

Russia first announced it was testing the missile in October 2017.

At the time, it was heralded as the most powerful and deadly atomic warhead on the planet.

Military expert Dr Paul Craig Roberts once sensationally claimed that the "five or six" of the Russian missiles could wipe out the entire US east coast.

The Russian news outlet Sputnik claimed the hypersonic missile is "capable of wiping out parts of the Earth the size of France or Texas".

On that basis it has been reported that the weapon could "wipe out an area the size of England and Wales twice over".

Makeyev Rocket Design Bureau, the missile manufacturer, said it was "created in order to secure an effective nuclear deterrent of Russia's strategic forces".

Built with new guidance technology capable of circumterrestrial navigation, the weapons are also able to strike from unexpected directions in most areas of the world.