Russia’s Sarmat ICBM to Achieve Combat Duty in 2022

Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the first regiment equipped with Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) will achieve combat duty next year.

Putin was addressing the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation on Wednesday. He added that by 2024 the share of modern weapons and equipment in the troops will be almost 76%; and in the nuclear triad, the figure will exceed 88% this year.

Russia will test Sarmat, its most powerful ICBM, this year. It claims the missile can “tear any current anti-aircraft missile defense systems to shreds.”

In December 2020, Deputy Defense Minister Alexei Krivoruchko disclosed that Sarmat was about to enter flight trials.

The RS-28 Sarmat (SS-X-30 Satan II) is an advanced silo-based system with a heavy liquid-propellant intercontinental ballistic missile. It has been in the process of its development since the 2000s to replace the R-36M2 Voyevoda (SS-18 Satan) ICBM. It weighs about 200 tonnes and has a payload of around 10 tonnes. Russia claims that the missile has a range of 10,000-18,000 km.

According to Russian media, Sarmat can reportedly load up to 10 large warheads, 16 smaller ones, a combination of warheads and countermeasures, or hypersonic boost-glide vehicles.