In February 2014, a Russian military official announced the Sarmat is expected to be ready for deployment around 2020. In May the same year, another official source suggested that the program was being accelerated and that it would, in his opinion, constitute up to 100 percent of Russia's fixed land-based nuclear arsenal by 2021. In late June 2015, it was reported that the production schedule for the first prototype of the Sarmat was slipping. The RS-28 Sarmat was expected to become operational in 2016. On 10 August 2016, Russia successfully tested the RS-28's first-stage engine named PDU-99. The first image of the missile was declassified and unveiled in October 2016. In early 2017, prototype missiles had been reportedly built and delivered to Plesetsk Cosmodrome for trials but the test program was being delayed to re-check key hardware components before initial launch. According to the commander of the Russian Strategic Forces, Col. Gen. Sergei Karakayev, the RS-28 Sarmat will be deployed with the 13th Red Banner Rocket Division of the 31st Missile Army at Dombarovsky Air Base, Orenburg Oblast and with the 62nd Red Banner Rocket Division of the 33rd Guards Rocket Army at Uzhur, Krasnoyarsk Krai, replacing the previous R-36M ICBMs currently located there. In late December 2017, the first successful ejection test of the missile was carried out at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome. According to the report, the missile flew several dozen kilometers and fell within the test range. On 1 March 2018, Russian president Vladimir Putin, in his annual address to the Federal Assembly, said that "the active phase of tests" of the missile had begun. Shortly after, an anonymous military source was cited as saying that the information about the Sarmat missile had in 2007 been leaked to the West deliberately. On 30 March 2018, the Russian Defence Ministry published a video showing the Sarmat performing its second successful test-launch at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome. On 24 December 2019, during the exhibition of the modern weapon systems at the National Defense Management Center, it was reported that Sarmat is capable of a "35,000 km sub-orbital flight". The trials of the missile complex are expected to be completed in 2021, and, during the 2020-2027 period, "twenty missile regiments are planned to be rearmed with the RS-28".
Design
The RS-28 Sarmat will be capable of carrying about 10 tonnes of payload for either up to 10 heavy or 15 light MIRV warheads, an unspecified number of Avangard hypersonic glide vehicles or a combination of warheads and massive amounts of countermeasures against anti-ballistic missile systems. The Russian ministry of Defense said that the missile is Russia's response to the U.S. Prompt Global Strike system. Sarmat has a short boost phase, which shortens the interval when it can be tracked by satellites with infrared sensors, such as the U.S. Space-Based Infrared System, making it more difficult to intercept. It is speculated that the Sarmat could fly a trajectory over the South Pole, completely immune to any current missile defense system, and that it has the Fractional Orbital Bombardment capability. According to various sources, RS-28's launch sites are to be equipped with the "Mozyr" active protection system, designed to negate potential adversary's first strike advantage by kinetically destroying incoming bombs, cruise missiles and ICBM warheads at altitudes of up to 6 km.
