RS-26 Rubezh intercontinental missile – what is it? For the first time, Russia used a weapon capable of striking Western Europe

The Russians launched an intercontinental ballistic missile on Thursdaythat fell on the city of Dnieper, the Ukrainian army reported. According to the Ukraińska Pravda website, it was an RS-26 Rubezh missile fired from the Astrakhan Oblast. We explain what the RS-26 Outland is and why the Russians used an intercontinental missile to attack a target only a thousand kilometers away – probably at the limit of the minimum range of this type of weapon.

The RS-26 Rubezh is one of the newest Russian long-range missiles. Officially, it is an intercontinental missile, which means it can strike targets located more than 5,500 km away. kilometers. In practice, its range is probably around 6,000. kilometers, which means that it is mainly intended to attack targets at distances of several thousand kilometers, but shorter than intercontinental ones.

It is a huge, multi-stage missile with a launch mass of several dozen tons, capable of carrying many nuclear or conventional warheads. – Although it is not the largest of the missiles possessed by Russia, it is not capable of flying over several thousand kilometers – notes military expert and editor-in-chief of “Nowa Technika Wojskowa”, Mariusz Cielma. However, striking with it at a distance of only a thousand kilometers must have been problematic for the Russians.

– It is possible, but it requires special development to launch such a projectile so that it flies higher than into the distance. It is worth recalling the North Korean missile test from October this year, which was fired almost vertically upwards. And when the boundary of space is 100 kilometers, the international space station is located at 400 kilometers, that North Korean rocket rose to 7,000 kilometers and fell into the sea about a thousand kilometers from the launch site. I think that the Russians could have launched their missile in a similar way – explains Mariusz Cielma.

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– Interestingly, just yesterday I read on Russian Telegram considerations on how it would be possible to use RS-26 Outland against cities in Ukraine. The coincidence in time is striking, so I do not rule out that it was some kind of controlled leak of information – he adds.

From a purely military perspective, using the RS-26 Rubezh against Ukraine made little sense. – Russia has no shortage of other missiles, so from a purely military point of view it was not justified – says the expert. – Russia produces several dozen missiles such as Iskander and Kalibr every month, capable of striking at such a distance, it would not have to resort to the expensive Outland – he emphasizes.

The use of such a powerful missile in the conflict with Ukraine had mainly “political, symbolic” significance. – Russia announced its response to opening the base in Redzikowo and allowing the use of Western weapons against targets deep inside Russia, and this is precisely such a response – says the editor-in-chief of “Nowa Technika Wojskowa”. – But this is a show, not the beginning of World War III – he adds.

The expert points out that it is not clear what warhead was used in this missile. – It is basically designed to carry nuclear warheads. This one certainly did not have a nuclear warhead, and it is possible that it did not have any warhead at all, but only an imitator – supposes Mariusz Cielma. – This rocket is huge, its take-off weight is 36 tons, so I do not rule out that the losses on the ground were caused not by the explosion, but by the fall of part of the rocket itself – he says.

If the use of the RS-26 Rubezh against Ukraine was intended as a symbolic display, then directed at whom? According to Mariusz Cielma, primarily to the broadly understood West. – This is supposed to show that things are a bit “boiling” in Moscow, that the West is going too far – he says.

– Importantly, this is the first time that Russia has used weapons against Ukraine that could hit targets in Western Europe. Because Outland is a missile that, although marked as intercontinental, may be aimed more at Western Europe than at USA – he notes.

– But it is also a show for Ukrainians to be careful about what targets in Russia they are now hitting with their ATACMS or Storm Shadow missiles, so that they do not feel so unpunished – he emphasized. – The Russians want to say: be careful, because if such a missile fell on the Dnieper, it could also fall on Kiev or Lviv – he explains. And the range of Ukrainian missiles allows them to hit many potential targets in Russia.

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Meanwhile, a missile such as Rubezh is much more dangerous than the Russian missiles previously used. – These missiles are dangerous because they fall from a very high height. Typical missiles, such as Kalibr or even Iskander, fly lower and along their flight path they can be shot down not only by Patriots, but in the case of maneuvering missiles even by anti-aircraft guns or hand launchers – explains Mariusz Cielma. – Whereas a rocket like Outland falls from the sky almost vertically like a stone. The Ukrainians have no chance of shooting down such a missile along the route of its arrival at the target, he emphasizes.

According to the expert, the use of RS-26 against Ukraine can be compared to an intercontinental weapon test, which the Russians regularly conduct. – If the Russians fired such a ballistic missile at the Kamchatka training ground, as they regularly do, the media would write about an ordinary test. However, when they targeted an industrial facility in Ukraine, which Russia is fighting and believes it is fighting the entire there NATOthis symbolic meaning is very clear – he notes.

If missiles such as RS-26 are so dangerous, does Poland have the ability to defend against them? – Poland has such a possibility in the final phase of the missile's flight at an altitude of several dozen kilometers, using Patriot systems – says Mariusz Cielma. – Poland bought PAC-3MSE anti-missile missiles for the Patriots, which are used to shoot down ballistic missiles, not airplanes – he notes.

– However, if we want to shoot down such a missile earlier, at a higher altitude, the base in Redzikowo would be such a defense system. Few people pay attention to it, but we received the latest version of SM-3 Block IIA missiles for this base, newer than those available at the base in Romania. These rockets are much larger, can fly further, and fly 50 percent faster. This is key to effectively combating missiles such as Rubiez, which reach a speed of over 20,000 kilometers per hour when hitting the target – emphasizes the expert.