Why Putin’s ‘Invincible’ Nuclear Weapon Deeply Worries Experts

By Dave Mosher,Business Insider

• During a speech on Thursday, Russian president Vladimir Putin showed test footage of a newintercontinental ballistic missile.
• The nuclear weapon, called the RS-28 Sarmat or Satan 2, has been in development since 2009.
• Putin claimed the ICBM is”invincible” to missile defense systems.
• He also presented animations of several other weapons, including what some call a “doomsday” drone submarine.

During Vladimir Putin’s annual speech on Thursday, the Russian president played videos that unveiled brand-new nuclear weapons with startling capabilities.

Putin announced an “unstoppable” nuclear-powered “global cruise missile” that has “practically unlimited” range, then showed an animation of the device bobbing and weaving around the globe. He also played a computer animation of a high-speed, nuke-armed submarine drone blowing up ships and coastal targets.

“Russia remained and remains the largest nuclear power. Do not forget, no one really wanted to talk to us. Nobody listened to us,” Putin told a crowd in Moscow, according to a translation by Sputnik, a Russian-government-controlled news agency. “Listen now.”

David Wright, a physicist and missile expert at the Union of Concerned Scientists, told Business Insider that the idea of an “unstoppable” cruise missile going around the world without being detected is “fiction,” since it’d heat up to an extreme degree. (CNN also reported that all tests of the cruise missile ended in crashes.)

But he said that at least one device Putin showed off likely does exist.

“We know they’re developing some new systems with a longer range and a larger payload,” Wright said.

The known weapon is called the RS-28 Sarmat, though NATO refers to it as the SS-X-30 Satan 2. Russia has been developing it since at least 2009.