Earlier this month, a launch silo at Russia's Plesetsk Cosmodrome looked unmarred and ready for its next mission. Now, satellite images show a whole new picture of the site, suggesting that a recent test of its RS-28 Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile went awry, reports Reuters. In fact, arms experts are calling the launch a "catastrophic failure," after Saturday photos taken by Maxar show a 200-foot-wide crater around the forest-surrounded launch site in northern Russia.
"It's a big hole in the ground," says analyst Pavel Podvig. "There was a serious incident with the missile and the silo." Not only that, but there's "extensive damage in and around the launchpad ... which suggests that the missile exploded shortly after ignition or launch," Maxar said, per the New York Times. "Additionally, small fires continue to burn in the forest to the east of the launch complex, and four firetrucks can be seen near the destroyed silo." The Washington Post notes that some experts say a fueling issue could have also led to problems.
When Russian President Vladimir Putin debuted the next-gen nuclear ICBM—aka "Satan II," said to be capable of reaching targets thousands of miles away, including in Europe and the US—in 2018, he said the missile would give it an advantage over the US, able to fire off nuclear warheads at five times the speed of sound. US officials say another Sarmat missile launch attempt in February 2023 similarly went south; Putin says one from April 2022 was successful. When queried about the latest incident, which the Post notes should "[put] a dent in the Kremlin's nuclear saber-rattling," the Kremlin said to check with Russia's Defense Ministry, which didn't offer any comment. (More Russia stories.)
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