The latest news from Russian media said that the Russian Strategic Forces will receive the first new Sarmat missiles in 2022
According to Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, “Flight tests this year and should be completed in 2022. In 2022, the first batch should enter service with the strategic missile forces”. According to the plan, Sarmat will replace Voevoda (РС-20В Satan), the heaviest strategic missile in the world. It will be capable of carrying up to 10 tonnes of payload for either up to 10 heavy or 15 light MIRV warheads.
Sarmat is the most powerful weapon in Russia’s nuclear arsenal, and is among six new weapons of mass destruction announced by President Vladimir Putin in 2018. The remaining missiles are: Avangard, Tsirkon, Poseidon , Kinzhal, and a nuclear cruise missile. The Russian Defense Ministry says that the Sarmat ICBM is Russia’s response to the US Prompt Global Strike system.
According to reports, Russia’s Sarmat is capable of wiping out an area the size of England and Wales combined. With a range of more than 18,000 km, this super-advanced ICBM is claimed to be part of Russia’s nuclear modernization program. Test launches of these RS-28 Sarmat missiles will be conducted this year.
ICBM Sarmat weighs about 208 tons – The warhead is nearly 10 tons and the fuel is 178 tons. More about MIRV technology, the Multiple independently targetable reentry vehicle. MIRV is an exoatmospheric ballistic missile payload containing several warheads, each capable of being aimed to hit a different target. Only China, Russia, United Kingdom, United States and France are currently confirmed to possess functional MIRV missile systems. Israel is suspected to possess or be in the process of developing MIRVs.
Sarmat ICBM can fly in unpredictable routes, bypassing missile defense zones. It can fly over the North and South Poles, approach targets from directions not expected to intercept. Sarmat has a short boost phase, which shortens the interval when it can be tracked by satellites with infrared sensors, such as the U.S. Space-Based Infrared System, making it more difficult to intercept. Russian media boasts that the Sarmat is more accurate than its predecessors, and is “capable of wiping out parts of the Earth the size of Texas or France.”
RS-28 Sarmat has a speed of Mach 20.7, equivalent to 25,560 km/h. There is no weapon on earth that reaches this terrifying speed. Not long ago, US defense officials admitted that the country lags behind Russia in the field of hypersonic weapons, and is not yet capable of effectively intercepting these weapons.
