Russian President Vladimir Putin has suffered an emabarassing setback as his feared Satan 2 nuclear arsenal failed four out of five missile tests, according to arms experts and satellite imagery from the launch site.
High-resolution satellite images of the launch pad at Russia’s Plesetsk test site, where the RS-28 Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile exploded, shows extensive damage.
A crater approximately 60 meters wide at the launch silo at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia, along with visible damage in the surrounding area that was not present in images taken earlier in the month.
US tested a Minuteman III missile out of Vandenberg earlier this year. It was not carrying a nuclear payload. It’s fairly common for countries to test missiles. Some countries broadcast their intent publicly so as not to accidentally trigger a retaliatory launch. Others don’t broadcast publicly, but they do communicate via the good-old-boy net for the same reason.
Hey Russia, we’re launching a nuke missle with the nuke removed in your direction. Just testing we swear!
This may be off topic, but I absolutely loved reading about Minuteman III guidance system.
And unlike all those “missiles by subscription and good behavior” that many big countries sell to smaller countries, it doesn’t rely on any satellite system or external corrections after launch.
BTW, I wonder what’s inside Russian ICBMs. People often say that all the Russian big cool projects in defense after breakup of the USSR are just finished Soviet projects. If that is true, there must be an awfully complex, but geek-porn-ish thing inside, possibly with analog and maybe even mechanical elements. If that is not, it’s still interesting. Right now yes, Russian military engineering relies on many foreign (NATO countries produced in fact) components. But that didn’t become a thing immediately, so I wonder how did they solve problems.
So, basically their post-soviet tech is all unfinished Soviet designs the soviets could never get to work, with a few western chips thrown in to do the math and control they could never manage.
No, just what was in progress.
“A few western chips” for military grade applications would be not too easy to get for some time, and USSR and then Russia could produce them, and the process of plants producing such closing was very slow and lasted till late 00s. It’s not the difference between a project stalling and moving further.
It’s the most recent stuff we hear about relying on Western components.
USSR with all its shortcomings did have functional nuclear shield, a space station, domestically produced computers (clones of Western things, yes, but that was a strategic decision, a stupid one though), a space shuttle analog that was arguably better. So “never manage” is usually not the reason for its failures. Economic inefficiency and administrative rot are.