As reported by the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, on May 12, 2026, at 11:15 a.m., the Strategic Missile Forces (Strategic Missile Forces) of the Russian Federation successfully test-launched a new heavy liquid-fueled land-based Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile from a silo launcher from the territory of the Dombarovsky Strategic Missile Forces position area in the Yasnensky district of the Orenburg Region. The launch was carried out at the Kura proving ground in Kamchatka. This is the second successful test launch of the Sarmat rocket, the first launch was made on April 20, 2022.
The second successful test launch of the new RS-28 (15A28) Sarmat heavy liquid-propellant land-based intercontinental ballistic missile from a silo launcher from the territory of the Dombarovsky Strategic Missile Forces position area in the Yasnensky district of the Orenburg region, 05/12/2026 (c) a frame from the video of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation
The Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, received a videoconference report from the commander of the Strategic Missile Forces, Colonel-General Sergei Karakayev, on the successful test of the Sarmat missile.
Colonel-General S. Karakayev stated in his report:
Today, at 11:15 a.m., the Strategic Missile Forces launched the latest heavy liquid-fueled Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile. The launch is successful. The launch task is completed.
According to the test results, the correctness of the design and technological solutions laid down, as well as the feasibility of the specified characteristics by the missile system, has been confirmed.
The stationary silo-based strategic missile system with the Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile is being created to replace the Soviet-made Voyevoda complex. In terms of its combat capabilities, the Sarmat surpasses its predecessor, primarily in terms of flight range, drop weight, launch readiness, and the range of countermeasures used, which makes it possible to reliably overcome existing and promising missile defense systems.
The complex is being developed by the joint-stock company "State Rocket Center named after Academician V.P.Makeev" together with the industrial cooperation.
The positive results of the launch of the Sarmat missile system will allow us to put the first missile regiment armed with this missile system on combat duty in the Uzhur formation of the Krasnoyarsk Territory by the end of this year.
The deployment of launchers with the Sarmat missile system will significantly increase the combat capabilities of the ground-based group of strategic nuclear forces to ensure the destruction of targets and solve strategic deterrence tasks.
The task set in this launch has been completed. Then we will continue to carry out the tasks of putting on combat duty. The report is finished.
In turn, Russian President Vladimir Putin stated on this occasion:
Sergey Viktorovich, I congratulate you and wish you further success. And in this regard, I will say the following.
Work on the improvement of deterrence forces has been resumed in Russia and has not stopped since the early 2000s. We were not up to it then, I must say bluntly. Russia was going through a very difficult period in its history. But after the United States withdrew from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty in 2002, we were forced - and I want to emphasize this - to think about ensuring our strategic security in the face of a new reality and the need to maintain a strategic balance of power and parity. That is why, I emphasize once again, work has begun in Russia to create promising complexes that have no global analogues, ensuring guaranteed overcoming of existing and promising missile defense systems.
We are gradually implementing the nuclear forces development program adopted in this regard. In 2004, work began on the Avangard intercontinental range missile system, which has been on combat duty since 2019. Then we got the Kinzhal medium-range hypersonic air-launched missile, which has been on duty since 2017. It is already being used during a special military operation, but work is continuing to improve it, including improving the accuracy of non-nuclear equipment.
Since 2025, the Oreshnik medium-range ground-based missile system, which can also be equipped with nuclear warheads, has been put on combat duty. Work is in the final stages on two complexes with small nuclear propulsion systems: the unique Poseidon unmanned underwater vehicle and the unique Burevestnik global-range cruise missile.
Now "Sarmat". We started working on it in 2011, and in 2018, these works and the advantages of new promising missile systems, including the Sarmat, were publicly announced. Let me remind you what was discussed at that time and what is the advantage of our newest system.
Firstly, it is the most powerful missile system in the world, which is not inferior in power to the Voyevoda missile system, which, as we have just said, is still Soviet-made. The total capacity of the delivered warhead is more than 4 times higher than the capacity of any existing most powerful Western equivalent.
Secondly, and most importantly, the missile can move not only along a ballistic, but also along a suborbital trajectory, which, thirdly, allows for a range of over 35,000 kilometers with simultaneously doubled accuracy characteristics and, finally, with the ability to overcome all existing and promising missile defense systems. At the end of this year, the Sarmat will indeed be put on combat duty.
Congratulations to the Ministry of Defense, all employees, researchers, engineers, organizers of the production of the military-industrial complex, senior executives and thousands of collaborators on this great event and unconditional success!
On the part of bmpd, we would like to point out that, thus, the second successful flight test of the RS-28 (15A28) Sarmat heavy silo liquid ICBM, developed by the Academician V.P.Makeev State Rocket Center JSC of the Roscosmos State Corporation, has been carried out. The first successful test launch of the Sarmat was carried out on April 20, 2022. However, after that, four subsequent known test launches of the rocket were unsuccessful (presumably, they were made on April 18, 2023, in October 2023, on September 20, 2024, and in November 2025). Nevertheless, as stated at the highest level (see above), by the end of 2026, the first Sarmat missiles should be put on combat (apparently, still experimental combat) duty as part of the 62nd Missile Red Banner Division of the 33rd Guards Missile Army of the Strategic Missile Forces in Uzhur in the Krasnoyarsk Territory. Presumably, the first two missiles in the silo in the 302nd missile regiment of this division will be put on duty. Serial production of the Sarmat ICBM is carried out at the Krasnoyarsk Machine-Building Plant, which is part of the Makeev State Research and Development Center.
As can be seen, the plans provided for the rearmament of SHPU Sarmat missiles, previously equipped with the R-36M2 missile system as part of the Strategic Missile Forces. As of 2020, the Strategic Missile Forces had 46 deployed R-36M2 missiles, 28 of them as part of the 62nd Missile Division in Uzhur and 18 as part of the 13th Missile Division in Yasnoye (Dombarovsky) in the Orenburg region. However, by the beginning of 2026, according to Western sources, only 34 R-36M2 missiles remained deployed.
It may be recalled that during the tests of the R-36 ICBM in the USSR, 85 test launches were carried out (seven of them were unsuccessful), the R-36M ICBM - 43 test launches (seven unsuccessful), the R-36M UTTH ICBM - 19 test launches (two unsuccessful), the R-36M2 ICBM - 33 test launches. three launches (six unsuccessful ones).
In light of this, the deployment of the Sarmat ICBM on combat duty as part of the Strategic Missile Forces combat missile regiment at the end of 2026, after only two successful test launches, is an act of great courage, emphasizing that currently (and, apparently, for the foreseeable future) The Sarmat complex is rather a "political" tool.
The second successful test launch of the new RS-28 (15A28) Sarmat heavy liquid-propellant land-based intercontinental ballistic missile from a silo launcher from the territory of the Dombarovsky Strategic Missile Forces position area in the Yasnensky district of the Orenburg region, 05/12/2026 (c) a frame from the video of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation
Video:
