Russia Wants This Mega Missile to Intimidate the West, but It Keeps Crashing
Stephen Clark, Ars Technica
created: Dec. 3, 2025, midnight | updated: Dec. 5, 2025, 11:48 a.m.
Satellite images taken since Friday show a crater and burn scar near the missile silo.
Analysts say the circumstances of the launch suggest it was likely a test of Russia’s RS-28 Sarmat missile, a weapon designed to reach targets more than 11,000 miles (18,000 kilometers) away, making it the world’s longest-range missile.
Simply put, the Sarmat is a doomsday weapon designed for use in an all-out nuclear war between Russia and the United States.
So far, what’s unique about the Sarmat missile is its propensity for failure.
The missile’s first full-scale test flight in 2022 apparently went well, but the program has suffered a string of consecutive failures since then, most notably a catastrophic explosion last year that destroyed the Sarmat missile’s underground silo in northern Russia.
5 days, 12 hours ago: WIRED