MOSCOW, September 17. /TASS/. Flight development tests of Russia’s advanced Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) will start in the third quarter of 2016, a source in the defense industry told TASS on Thursday.

It was reported earlier on Thursday that drop tests of the Sarmat ICBM would be held at the Plesetsk launch site in north Russia in the spring of 2016 instead of 2015, which was the date previously planned by the Defense Ministry.

"As the schedule of the missile’s drop tests is shifted forward, the deadline for the start of its flight development tests is also moved forward. The former tests have been rescheduled for March 2016 and so the latter tests have been shifted to the third quarter of the same year," the source said.

The Sarmat heavy ICBM is being co-developed by NPO Mashinostroyeniya in Reutov (Moscow Region) and the Makeyev State Missile Center in Miass. According to the developers, the advanced Sarmat will weigh within 100 tons. According to Deputy Defense Minister Yuri Borisov, its range will exceed 11,000 km. The cutting-edge missile is designed as a successor to the world’s largest and most formidable ballistic missile, the RS-20V Voyevoda, weighing 210 tons and carrying 10 individually targeted warheads 750 kilotons each.