SOCHI, May 18. /TASS/. The Sarmat system is to enter operational service in 2020, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday.

"Trials of other promising systems continue. Soon, they are to begin service in our strategic forces. I mean first of all the Sarmat system that is to enter operational service in 2020, the Avangard system that is to become operational in 2019 and other systems," he said at a meeting with the Russian top brass and top executives of defense-sector companies.

The RS-28 Sarmat is the Russian cutting-edge silo-based missile with the heavy liquid-fuel ICBM capable of carrying nuclear charges. Russia has been developing the Sarmat since the 2000s to replace the R-36M2 Voevoda ICBM operational in the Strategic Missile Forces since 1988. The Sarmat weighs about 200 tons and has a throw weight of 10 tons.

Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the creation of the Avangard hypersonic missile system in his state-of-the-nation address on March 1. The gliding winged reentry vehicle of Avangard strategic complex can fly to an intercontinental distance with hypersonic speed of over Mach 20.0 and maneuver in altitude and along the course.