According to reported comments by the head of the country’s space agency, Russia has put into service an advanced Sarmat nuclear missile system that Vladimir Putin, the Russian President has said would make Russian rivals “think twice” about their threats.
On Friday, according to a Russian news agency report, Yuri Borisov, the head of Russia’s space agency Roscosmos, said Sarmat missiles have “assumed combat duty.”
TASS news agency cited the Roscosmos chief as saying that the Sarmat strategic system has carried combat cautious posture.
The report added that Based on experts’ estimations, the RS-28 Sarmat is capable of providing a MIRVed warhead weighing up to 10 tonnes to any place worldwide, both over the North and South Poles.
I am not in a position to verify reports that Moscow had set the Sarmat on combat eagerness, John Kirby, White House National Security Council spokesman said on Friday.
The Sarmat – one of few developed weapons in Russia’s arsenal – would be prepared for deployment soon, Putin said in February.
The Sarmat would “reliably assure the safety of Russia from outer dangers and create those, who in the heat of fierce rhetoric attempt to threaten our nation, think twice”, Putin said in 2022.
The Sarmat, known by its codename “Satan” by NATO allies, is an underground missile that Russian officials say can bring up to 15 nuclear warheads, though the United States military estimates its ability to be 10 warheads.
The missile reportedly has a brief initial takeoff phase, which provides a short time for surveillance systems to track its launch.
With a range of 18,000 km (11,000 miles), Sarmat was developed to replace Russia’s older generation of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), dating from the 1980s.
