Russia announces ‘successful’ test of 16,000mph hypersonic Satan-2 nuclear missile in massive weapons drill
RUSSIA has successfully tested its hypersonic Satan-2 nuclear missile in a massive weapons drill, Moscow said.
Colonel General Sergei Karakaev said the RS-28 Sarmat missile - which can blast targets at almost 16,000mph - was successfully launched for a second time.
Karakaev made the announcement at the Military Council of the Strategic Missile Forces held in the Moscow region, reports.
He said "flight tests of the Sarmat missile system have been successfully carried out", according to the Russian defence ministry.
It's not yet clear when or where the test took place.
Earlier this month, Vladimir Putin was said to be plotting a second test of his unstoppable missile by the end of the year.
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Russia previously 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.
It has the potential to obliterate the United Kingdom 1,600 miles away in just six minutes.
After a successful first test in April, Putin, 70, claimed the nuke missile can "break through any defences" - and would "force those who try to threaten Russia to think twice".
During the first launch, footage showed the enormous 115ft missile being launched from an underground silo, triggering an enormous fireball.
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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.
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."
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.
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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.
