Russia’s Powerful Sarmat ICBM Ready for New Stage of Tests

Russia’s new Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) is set to undergo a new stage of tests, Roscosmos head Dmitry Rogozin said on Tuesday.

"The world’s most powerful global-range nuclear-tipped missile is being prepared for new tests and serial production," Rogozin wrote on his official Telegram account.

The Roscosmos chief earlier visited the Krasmash enterprise in Krasnoyarsk in Eastern Siberia to inspect the process of producing the Sarmat ICBM for flight tests. He said that the enterprise was ready to ensure the stable serial production of the ICBMs.

Russia successfully test-launched the Sarmat for the first time from the Plesetsk spaceport in the Arkhangelsk Region in the country’s north on April 20. The launch confirmed all the ICBM’s designed characteristics at all the stages of its flight. Currently, the Uzhur missile formation in the Krasnoyarsk Region is preparing to arm its forward regiment with the Sarmat ICBMs.

The RS-28 Sarmat will replace the world's most powerful silo-based strategic missile RS-20V Voevoda (according to NATO classification - SS-18 Satan).

Sarmat was developed at the Makeyev State Rocket Center (part of Roscosmos) and is manufactured at the Krasmash enterprise. As per Russian media, it is capable of delivering a MIRVed warhead weighing up to 10 tons to any location worldwide both over the North and South Poles.

It was officially reported that Sarmat missiles in the future will become carriers of Avangard hypersonic gliding winged warheads, developing speeds of about Mach 27. Currently, Avangard warheads are being installed on UR-100N UTTKh ICBMs.