Loading the UR-100N UTTH ICBM with Avangard. December 2020. Yasnensky district
The Russian Defense Ministry confirmed that the newest intercontinental ballistic missile "Sarmat" will be the carrier of hypersonic blocks "Avangard". Currently, the carrier is the UR-100N UTTH ICBM, which continues to be on combat duty.
The new Sarmat ICBM, which in the future will replace the Soviet Voevoda ICBM (SS-18 Satan "Satan" - according to the NATO classification) will be able to carry several Avangard hypersonic combat units at once. The number, of course, is not called. According to the commander of the Strategic Missile Forces Sergey Karakaev, the missile was created taking into account the equipment of various combat units, including hypersonic. The General stressed that today there are no Avangard-type hypersonic units in service with other countries.
- said the commander of the RVSN.
As previously reported by Military Review, on April 20, 2022, the Ministry of Defense began state tests of the Sarmat ICBM. Launched from the mine installation of the Plesetsk cosmodrome, the rocket successfully reached the Kura test site in Kamchatka, hitting targets. As stated by the military, as a result of the tests, Sarmat confirmed all the characteristics inherent in it.
It is planned to adopt the Sarmat into service in the fall, the first missiles will be put on combat duty in the Krasnoyarsk Territory in the Uzhur rocket compound.
Avangard hypersonic combat units have already been on combat duty since 2019. The first UR-100N UTTH intercontinental ballistic missiles equipped with the Avangard hypersonic gliding combat unit were installed in the launch shafts of the Dombarovsky (Yasnensky) RVSN compound in the Orenburg Region. Serial production of the blocks is already underway.
