What makes these glide vehicles so difficult to defeat is their flight profile. Unlike traditional ballistic warheads, they travel along a relatively low, flattened trajectory at hypersonic speeds near the edge of the atmosphere while retaining the ability to maneuver both in altitude and direction. As a result, they are detected much later than conventional reentry vehicles and are extraordinarily difficult to intercept due to their unpredictable maneuvering. The Sarmat may be able to carry more than a dozen standard warheads, but likely no more than three to five hypersonic glide vehicles. Nevertheless, such payloads would presumably be reserved for the highest-priority strategic targets – and, according to Russian military doctrine, those targets would be struck with near certainty.
Does any other country possess missiles comparable to the Sarmat? At the moment, no. China still operates heavy liquid-fueled missiles, but those systems are generally considered technologically outdated. Once the Sarmat enters operational service, the share of modern and next-generation missiles in Russia’s nuclear arsenal will approach nearly 100%.
This stands in stark contrast to the United States’ land-based nuclear arsenal, which still relies entirely on the Minuteman III ICBM – a missile originally deployed in the 1970s and subsequently modernized several times during the 1990s and 2000s. Much of America’s ground-based strategic nuclear force is now widely seen as overdue for replacement and modernization. Russia’s Strategic Rocket Forces, by comparison, are poised to field what many in Moscow describe as the most powerful combat missile ever created. Without question.
