MOSCOW, September 1. /TASS/. Advanced Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) systems have assumed combat duty in Russia, Roscosmos Chief Yury Borisov said on Friday.
"The Sarmat strategic system has assumed combat alert posture," the Roscosmos head said at an open lesson of the educational marathon organized by Russia’s Knowledge Society.
Russian President Vladimir Putin announced on February 23 that top-notch Sarmat systems with new heavy ICBMs would go on combat duty in Russia already this year.
However, Roscosmos’ presentation demonstrated at the event suggests that Sarmat ICBM systems are set to go on combat alert next year.
The RS-28 Sarmat is a Russian state-of-the art silo-based missile system armed with a heavy liquid-propellant orbital intercontinental ballistic missile capable of carrying nuclear charges. The missile has been developed at the Makeyev State Rocket Center (the town of Miass in the Chelyabinsk Region) to replace the R-36M2 Voyevoda ICBM operational in the Russian Strategic Missile Force since 1988.
Based on experts’ estimates, the RS-28 Sarmat is capable of delivering a MIRVed warhead weighing up to 10 tons to any location worldwide both over the North and South Poles.