Moscow. June 21. INTERFAX - Russian President Vladimir Putin said that modern S-500 air defense systems are already being delivered to the troops, and the heavy Sarmat ICBM will be on combat duty at the end of 2022.
"In addition to the new weapons already tested on the battlefield, the S-500 air defense and missile defense systems that have no analogues in the world began to arrive in the troops. The Sarmat heavy intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) has been successfully tested," the head of state said at a meeting with graduates of Russian military schools on Tuesday.
He added at the same time: "It is planned that at the end of this year the first such complex will be on combat duty."
As Putin noted, "robotics, the latest means of control and reconnaissance, unmanned aerial vehicles will be used more widely, much more widely, and weapons systems based on new physical principles will be actively developed, I mean laser, electromagnetic and much more."
The S-500 Prometheus (Almaz-Antey Concern of East Kazakhstan Region) is a new generation of long-range air defense systems that will be able to shoot down targets in near space. According to the military, the S-500 will become the basis of a unified national air and missile defense system (air defense-missile defense).
The commander-in-chief of the Aerospace Forces, Sergei Surovikin, previously stated that the S-500 will be able to destroy satellites and hypersonic weapons of all modifications in near space.
The Defense Ministry then said that after the completion of the full test cycle, the equipment plans provide for the delivery of the first S-500 system to the air defense-missile defense association near Moscow.
The Russian Defense Ministry announced the first test launch of the Sarmat ICBM from the Plesetsk cosmodrome on April 20.
"The new complex has the highest tactical and technical characteristics and is able to overcome all modern means of missile defense. It has no analogues in the world and will not be for a long time," Putin said on April 20 after watching the successful test launch of the Sarmat by video link.
On May 22, the head of Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, announced that Russia will soon put about 50 Sarmat ICBMs on combat duty. Prior to that, Rogozin said that serial deliveries of these missiles to the Russian Defense Ministry are planned to begin by the end of autumn this year.
It was reported that the Sarmat missiles will be mass-produced at the Krasmash plant (Krasnoyarsk, Roscosmos Corporation).
It was officially reported that the RS-28 Sarmat ICBM will replace the world's most powerful mine-based strategic missile RS-20V Voevoda (according to NATO classification - SS-18 Satan). in the Uzhurskaya (Krasnoyarsk Territory) and Dombarovskaya (Orenburg region) divisions of the RVSN.
The Sarmat missile can be equipped with several Avangard hypersonic combat units, the commander of the Russian Strategic Missile Forces, Sergei Karakaev, said on April 24.
