The first test launch of the newest intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) "Sarmat" will not take place this year. Earlier, a TASS source in the defense industry said that one launch will be carried out by the end of 2021.
TASS reported on the new test dates of the Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile, citing a source in the military-industrial complex. According to the agency interlocutor, the launch of the flight design test program (LKI) was scheduled for the first quarter of next year.
In August, it became known that the first rocket launch under the LKI program should be carried out in the fall, and the second - at the end of the year. Later, TASS wrote that the test program was changed. According to the new schedule, the only launch of the Sarmat this year will take place in December. Five launches were planned for the next year under the LKI program and state tests.
If successful, the missile system will soon be put into service: the first regiment should take up combat duty in the Uzhursky missile compound next year.
"Sarmat" was developed by specialists of the Makeev State Rocket Center. The new generation mine-based complex has a heavy multistage liquid ICBM. According to estimates, such missiles will be able to deliver separable warheads weighing up to ten tons to anywhere in the world, both through the North and South Poles. As of today, we have conducted three throwing launches from Plesetsk.
In the Armed Forces, Sarmat will replace the famous R-36M2 complex. In the case of the Sarmat, the emphasis was not on the maximum mass of the warheads being thrown, but on the delivery of a relatively small number of warheads with the expectation that they would be difficult to intercept. This, in particular, is facilitated by special flight paths.
R-36M2 Rocket
Image source: wikipedia
Russia has a full-fledged "nuclear triad" in service, consisting of intercontinental ballistic missiles, submarine-launched ballistic missiles (and their carriers), as well as strategic aviation aircraft.
The marine component of the triad has also been actively re-equipped in the last ten years. The main efforts are aimed at the construction of strategic nuclear submarines of the fourth generation of Project 955 "Borey", equipped with R-30 "Bulava-30" missiles.
Project 955A submarine
Image source: Pavel Lvov
The first such submarine was handed over to the Navy in 2013. In addition to her, the fleet received three more boats. The laying of new ships - "Dmitry Donskoy" and "Prince Potemkin— - became known in August. In total, open sources talk about the construction of ten "Boreas".
