Russia’s Sarmat strategic missile system has been put on combat duty, Yuri Borisov, the head of Russian state space corporation Roscosmos, has announced.
Sarmat is a heavy missile system with an intercontinental liquid-fueled ballistic missile weighing more than 200 tonnes. The system is intended to replace the Voevoda (also known as Satan) missiles in Russia's strategic missile forces.
Russia tested the strategic Sarmat missile throughout 2022. The nuclear-capable missile is capable of striking targets at long ranges using various flight trajectories and is guaranteed to overcome any existing and prospective missile defense systems, according to the Russian Defense Ministry.
With the longest target engagement range, Sarmat is also expected to strengthen the combat capabilities of Russia's strategic nuclear forces. Experimental development work on the Sarmat project began in 2011, while the first test launch of the Sarmat missile was carried out in April 2022.
Sarmat can fly over the North and South Poles and along other trajectories, Col. Gen. Sergey Karakaev, Commander of Russia’s Strategic Missile Forces, revealed last year.
"Due to the power-to-weight ratio of the new missile system, the trajectory has the ability to change. From our notorious trajectory through the North Pole, if necessary, it is possible to lay a trajectory through the South Pole, which, in principle, is not protected today. And there are also possibilities for other trajectories - in terms of the possibility of launching into outer space," Karakaev told Russia media last year.
According to him, in the coming decades, it will be hardly possible to create means of intercepting Sarmat.
In February, Russian President Vladimir Putin noted that Russia will "continue the mass production of hypersonic air-to-surface Kinzhal missiles and begin mass deliveries of anti-ship hypersonic Zircon cruise missiles", while announcing that the Sarmat missile would soon enter into combat duty.