00:00In 2018, Vladimir Putin unveiled Russia's next generation of strategic weapons before
00:05the country's parliament.
00:06Behind him, an animation showed nuclear warheads sweeping over the South Pole toward Florida.
00:11The weapon presented was the RS-28 Sarmat, known in the West as Satan II.
00:16This heavy intercontinental ballistic missile was designed to carry an enormous payload
00:20across intercontinental distances.
00:22By routing over the South Pole, Sarmat bypasses North America's early warning radars, which
00:28are oriented north toward traditional Arctic trajectories.
00:31A single 750-kiloton warhead unleashes roughly 36 times the explosive yield of the Fat Man
00:38bomb dropped on Nagasaki.
00:40To defend against it, the United States relies on its ground-based midcourse defense system.
00:45Infrared satellites detect the heat from a missile launch, while powerful ground-based radars
00:50track its trajectory through space.
00:52Once a threat is identified, interceptor missiles launch from bases in Alaska or California,
00:57carrying specialized kill vehicles designed to collide directly with incoming warheads
01:02at extremely high speeds.
