The new re-entry vehicle of the Russian Aerospace Forces, or more simply the new nuclear warhead carrier of the most powerful intercontinental ballistic missile R-36M2, seems to be a fact as reported by French media.
Also referred to as the SS-18 Mod 5 Satan in the West, this missile contains one of the heaviest payloads designed for an ICBM, making it one of the most dangerous missiles in the world, “the missile will have the ability to be extinguished by map an area the size of Texas or France,” Liberation wrote.
The mechanism for delivering multiple warheads to different targets is known as a “multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicle, or MIRV.”
Detailed images of the R-36M2 payload vehicle were first shared on Twitter by Dmitry Kornev, a Russian military analyst on his blog, Military Russia.
The footage was released after the first full-scale launch of the RS-28 Sarmat ICBM in April 2022.
The vehicle can hold up to 14 heads, arranged in two rows of seven. Kornev believes that each of these missiles usually carries ten warheads!
Instead, the remaining four slots are usually occupied by decoys (multiples of warheads) to make it difficult for opposing troops to intercept incoming projectiles.
There is some dispute over the estimated yield of these warheads, with several reports claiming it to be in the range of 550-750 kilotons, while some claim they could be more lethal, ranging between 750 kilotons and one megaton.
The vehicle appears to have four separate rocket engines in the back, which would launch it into space and then deliver its warheads and decoys over multiple targets on a predetermined course.
