MOSCOW, July 2. /TASS/. US missiles lag far behind Russia’s Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile in terms of technical performance, Director General of Russia’s Roscosmos state space corporation Dmitry Rogozin said.
"As for technical performance, what they have in their arsenal certainly lags behind what we have. They lag especially far behind in terms of the designed capabilities of our Sarmat heavy intercontinental ballistic missile, which have been confirmed in the first test-launch," he told the Rossiya-24 TV channel.
The Roscosmos chief believes that Russia needs to have "a great equalizer" like that, which can be used in case of a threat to the country’s sovereignty or existence.
The Sarmat ICBM, developed by the Makeyev State Rocket Center, is manufactured by the Krasmash plant (both part of Roscosmos). According to experts, the RS-28 Sarmat is capable of delivering an MIRV warhead weighing up to ten tonnes to any part of the world over the North and South Poles. Russia performed the first test-launch of the Sarmat ICBM from the Plesetsk spaceport in the Arkhangelsk region on April 20. The test was successful, confirming the ICBM’s designed capabilities at all stages of its flight. Rogozin stated in late June that Roscosmos had launched serial production of Sarmat missiles.