MOSCOW, November 19. /TASS/. The first regiment with the latest Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) will take up combat duty in the Strategic Missile Forces in December 2023, a source close to the Russian Defense Ministry told TASS.

"The first Sarmat regiment, consisting of a command post and several silo launchers will go on combat duty as part of the Uzhur missile formation of the Strategic Missile Forces in December of this year," the source said.

TASS does not have official confirmation of this information.

According to another TASS source, this regiment is currently on experimental combat duty in the above-mentioned formation. According to existing practice in the Strategic Missile Forces, a command post of a missile regiment and two silos are first placed on combat duty, then the number of installations is increased to the full complement.

As the first TASS source mentioned, simultaneously with the deployment of the Sarmatov regiment, development tests of the missile will continue, which have not yet been completed. The Sarmat flight tests are currently being carried out from the Plesetsk spaceport at the Kura training ground in Kamchatka.

As the Defense Ministry reported, the first launch within the framework of the Sarmat development tests was successfully completed on April 20, 2022.

Sarmat is a Russian state-of-the art silo-based missile system armed with a heavy liquid-fuel orbital intercontinental ballistic missile capable of carrying nuclear charges. The missile has been in the process of its development at the Makeev State Rocket Center (the town of Miass in Chelyabinsk region).