MOSCOW, February 6. /TASS/. The pop-up tests of the Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) have proven the correctness of all the developers’ basic technical solutions, Chairman of the Scientific and Technical Council at the State Space Corporation Roscosmos Yuri Koptev said in a video posted by Roscosmos’ TV studio on Wednesday.

"A very serious stage was held last year. This involved pop-up tests, which confirmed the correctness of all the basic technical solutions," Koptev said, commenting on the Sarmat ICBM’s trials.

As he stressed, the contribution of Roscosmos enterprises to the country’s defense capability is estimated at about 40%

Roscosmos Chief Dmitry Rogozin earlier reported to President Vladimir Putin that the work on the new heavy RS-28 Sarmat ICBM was proceeding according to schedule.

A source in the defense industry earlier told TASS that the flight development tests of the Sarmat ICBM were planned to be launched from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in the second quarter of 2019.

According to the source, several experimental Sarmat models are planned to be launched during the trials from the Plesetsk spaceport and from the testing range of the Uzhur missile division in the Krasnoyarsk Region in East Siberia. The trials will be concluded in 2020. After that, a verification test-launch of the serial-produced missile will be conducted.

Sarmat ICBM

The RS-28 Sarmat is a Russian advanced silo-based system with the heavy liquid-propellant intercontinental ballistic missile. It has been in the process of its development since the 2000s to replace the R-36M2 Voyevoda ICBM.

It weighs about 200 tonnes and has a throw weight of around 10 tonnes. The media reported in late December 2017 about the first successful pop-up test of the Sarmat ICBM.