Russia announced on Wednesday it had successfully test-launched its Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile, which President Vladimir Putin said had no peers in the world and would give Moscow’s enemies pause before threatening his country’s security.
Putin said the Sarmat will have no peers in the world for a long time to come and would make those “who, in the heat of frenzied aggressive rhetoric, are trying to threaten our country” to think twice, Interfax news agency reported.
The test-launch comes at a time of heightened tensions between Russia and the West over Moscow’s invasion Ukraine.
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Director-general of Russian space agency Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, described the test-launch as a “present to NATO.”
Here’s everything we know about the Sarmat:
The Russian Defense Ministry says this intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) has the “longest range in the world” and can carry hypersonic weapons, state news agency TASS reported.
The Sarmat is a heavy class liquid-propellant rocket, which, according to experts, is capable of delivering a multiple re-entry vehicle weighing up to 10 tons to anywhere in the world, both through the North and South Poles.
Putin said the new missile system has “the highest tactical and technical characteristics and is capable of overcoming all modern anti-missile defense systems.”
The Sarmat missile system will replace the existing Voevoda missile system which was put into service in 1988.
The defense ministry said that one of the regiments of the Uzhur missile formation in the Krasnoyarsk region will be the first to rec3eive the latest missile and the Sarmat will take up combat duty at the end of 2022.
Read more:
Russia tests nuclear-capable ballistic missile that Putin says has no peer
