Russia released video footage Friday of its “Satan 2” missile test as Russian President Vladimir Putin bragged the new nuclear missile would be “invulnerable” to missile defense systems.
The video relayed the Satan 2 missile was launched from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Russia, CNN reported. Russian news agency Sputnik said it was the second successful test of the Sarmat missile, with the first one being in December.
The missile is intended to replace the Soviet-era Voevoda ICBM, which NATO called SS-18 Satan, CNN reported. Satan 2 can carry more and heavier missiles and can cross both the North and South Poles. It also accelerates faster, which could help it elude missile defense systems.
Days before the Russian launch, the U.S. Navy test-fired a new ICMB from a submarine off the Southern California coast, Fox News reported.
U.S. President Donald Trump reportedly told Putin during a congratulatory phone call after Putin’s election win last week that “if you want to have an arms race we can do that, but I’ll win,” sources told NBC News.
Tensions between Russia and the U.S. have been heightened after Trump expelled about 60 Russian diplomats from the U.S. in response to the poisoning of an ex-Russian spy and his daughter in Britain. In response, the Kremlin announced it would expel 60 American diplomats and close the U.S. consulate in St. Petersburg, Fox News reported.
Another Russian news agency, TASS, reported the new Russian Sarmat missile will begin mass production in 2020 and become operational the year after, Fox News reported.
The White House said in a statement that it knows Russia has been developing “destabilizing weapons systems for over a decade in direct violations of its treaty obligations,” Fox News said.
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