MOSCOW, December 17. /TASS/. Work on the Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile goes on actively and is now nearing completion, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday.
"Work on the Sarmat proceeds actively, and is now at the final stage. As for Poseidon [an unmanned underwater vehicle - TASS], work goes on well. Work on a missile with a nuclear global-distance system also proceeds as scheduled," he said at his annual news conference.
According to the president, work on other weapon systems that was announced in his state-of-the-nation address also proceeds as scheduled. "Some of them - the Kinzhal and the Peresvet laser weapon - have been put into service," he said.
The RS-28 Sarmat is a Russian advanced silo-based system with a heavy liquid-propellant intercontinental ballistic missile. It has been in the process of 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 Sarmat is capable of breaching any existing and future missile defenses.