RUSSIAN ARSENAL. With nearly a million military personnel, over 6000 nuclear warheads and the most powerful missile in the world, Satan 2, Russia is one of the greatest military powers. If its progress is slowed down in Ukraine, we must keep in mind that it still has resources.
[Mis à jour le 4 mars 2022 à 15h50] The Ukrainian army holds its positions and pushes back the Russian troops in places. More than a week after Russia invaded Ukraine, Kremlin forces are struggling to take cities like Kiev or Kharkiv, the result of a strategic mistake. “Russia has a style of warfare that has hardly changed since World War II. It always sends a first echelon to test the waters, and then others follow. But there were breaks in the chain logistics, hence the abandonment of vehicles. The teams trained to deploy, but not to combat”, explains Joseph Henrotin, strategy specialist and editor-in-chief of the magazine Défense et sécurité internationale, at the Parisian. However, in the face of Ukrainian resistance, the push-in operation was not enough. However, these setbacks do not spell Russian defeat because Moscow, as the leading military power, still has heavy artillery in its closets.
With 900,000 soldiers forming the ranks of the Russian army and able to be joined by as many reservists, 2,000 tanks and more than 5,500 infantry vehicles, not to mention the nuclear arsenal, the means of the Russian army are colossal and far exceed Ukrainian military capabilities. The Kiev government can count on its side on almost a million men taking into account the ranks of reservists. If Ukraine has not shown the full extent of its strength either, it knows that it must rather play on strategy than on numbers. A detail that she understood well and tries to implement by moving the first troops away from the rear bases to weaken the Russian occupants. The technique pays off against ground assaults, but it is difficult to fight against the precision aerial fire that the Kremlin army loves. Missiles are Moscow’s great strength, with different ranges, conventional warheads and other nuclear warheads, cluster bombs, thermobaric bombs and as a last resort: the RS-28 Sarmat missile or Satan 2 of his nickname. Inventory and details on the Russian arsenal which still holds surprises.
The Satan 2 missile, what is it?
In appearance, the black cylinder takes up the characteristics of intercontinental ballistic missiles except that its dimensions are exaggeratedly large: 30 meters long for more than a hundred tons. Its size allows it to be heavily loaded with twelve nuclear warheads and inflict unparalleled damage. According to Russian communications, a single Satan 2 missile could, in just a few seconds, wipe out a territory of 10,000 kilometers and wipe France or the state of Texas off the map with a single bombardment. Information to be taken with precaution, a share of propaganda being at work in the Russian media. In study and in production for several years, the Satan 2 or RS-28 Sarmat of its real name has been ready since 2021 to be deployed by the Russian military forces in the event of a conflict. Satan 2 missiles are not only feared for their strike force. The devices resulting from the new technology have, still according to Russian information, a stealth mode capable of escaping the vigilance of air radars. Their trajectory has also been designed to complicate their destruction by anti-aircraft defense systems.
The artillery weapon sends shivers down the spine, but before using the presumed most powerful missile in the world’s military arsenal, Russia has other cards to play. Satan 2 appears to be the attack of last resort and “the Russians do not consider themselves in such danger as to have to use such weapons, it would take a massive attack on Russian territory for that”, according to the military analyst and specialist in the Russian army, Vincent Tourret, interviewed by the Parisian. Joseph Henrotin, he excludes the risk considering that the missile “would not yet be in service”.
500, 2,500 km, what are the ranges of Russian missiles?
In addition to Satan 2, Russia has different types of missiles and it has not hesitated to drop a few dozen on Ukraine since the invasion of February 24, 2022. We know from the Russian arsenal the missiles Iskander, Kalibr and cruise missiles. The first allow firing between 100 and 500 kilometers and are launched from land vehicles. Kalibr missiles offer longer range firings up to 2,500 kilometers and generally launch from the sea, finally cruise missiles are shells dropped by air. For each weapon, it is possible to launch conventional or nuclear attacks by loading them with atomic warheads.
Cluster munitions are weapons of another category widely decried and prohibited by the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions. These missiles are in fact containers which house and drop in flight several explosive projectiles called “sub-munitions”. Unlike precision strikes, these random shots can strike anywhere and often result in civilian deaths. The NGOs Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have suspected for several days that cluster munitions were used by Russia to carry out the offensive on Ukraine, which would constitute a “war crime” according to Joseph Henrotin.
More than 6000 nuclear warheads, what are the Russian nuclear forces?
Russia has the largest number of nuclear warheads: 6,225, according to the‘stockholm international peace research institute. However, among these thousands of warheads, some are not operational, others in maintenance and others still at the end of their life awaiting dismantling. The fact remains that 1600 missiles are “deployed”, ready to be launched at any time. Most nuclear weapons are intercontinental ballistic missiles, understand capable of being sent more than 3,000 kilometers and at very high speed. In addition to being able to launch attacks over – very – long distances, Russia can, thanks to its bombers, its submarines and its surface ships, send a nuclear bomb from where it wishes.
According to information from NATO, Russia is still working to optimize its nuclear arsenal with the manufacture of a hypersonic missile flying at extreme speed at low altitude and capable of maneuvering in midair to thwart the tracing of bombs by the enemy. These missiles of a new kind are still in the test phase but remain a threat to be taken into account.
Thermobarics, potential or imminent danger?
Russia’s heavy artillery strikes impress the world, and for good reason: rocket launchers such as the TOS-1, the TOS-1A, produced and used since the 1980s, or the TOC-1A, its latest version. newer one produced in 2003 and which has 30 more rocket launchers, are capable of firing missiles with thermobaric warheads, in other words vacuum bombs. These bombs are weapons of the conventional type which are based on the combination of thermal effects, shock waves and depression: heat and pressure are thus the two effects produced by these bombs. As the level of alert intensifies almost everywhere, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the Ukrainian ambassador to the UN accuse, on February 28, Russia of having used these thermobaric bombs. the Korii mediaSlate’s site dedicated to new technologies, also recalls that “TOS-1 are the most devastating conventional weapons that can be used in a conflict”.
However, some Russian weapons are not actually deployed on the ground, as recalled Capital. If the videos showing Russian soldiers handling TOC-1A rocket launchers fuse on social networks, it is not proven that this type of destructive armament is really used in the conflict. In addition, the Russian equipment, if very rich, is not fully mobilized, like the New Tank T-14 Armata, a new modern tank not yet deployed, the first operational units having yet arrived at the end of 2021 .
Does Russia have an air defense system?
If it is equipped with a large offensive arsenal, Russia has also invested in defensive technologies against the air attacks that can be inflicted on it. In particular, it has attack helicopters such as MI-17 troop transport aircraft, including the famous Kamov KA-52 “Alligator”, a high-performance combat helicopter with a day/night capability, designed to destroy tanks , to attack other enemy helicopters, but above all to guarantee a high degree of protection for the crew. Since 2021, Moscow has benefited from the S-500 Prometei anti-aircraft missile system, considered to be one of the most efficient in the world. The device is capable of destroying all types of targets, aircraft, drones but also intercontinental or hypersonic ballistic missiles and is able to engage 10 simultaneous defensive responses.