Russia to Deploy New ICBM in Combat Within the Year... 2,000 Times Hiroshima Atomic Bomb Power

Published 23 Apr.2022 18:40(KST)

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Jin-ho Kim] Russia is expected to deploy the 5th generation intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) RS-28 'Sarmat', which recently succeeded in its first test launch, into active service within this year.

According to major foreign media on the 23rd, Dmitry Rogozin, head of the Federal Space Agency that developed the Sarmat missile, said in an interview with a domestic TV broadcast, "We plan to deploy the Sarmat missile into active service before this fall." He added, "The task of establishing the first unit in Krasnoyarsk Krai, Siberia, with the mass-produced missiles lies ahead of the Federal Space Agency."

He explained, "The ground infrastructure for missile launches, that is, the missile silo (hangar), is the same as what was needed for previous missile launches and does not need to be rebuilt," adding, "The Sarmat missile will be deployed in areas where missile divisions are already stationed."

Earlier, on the 20th, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced that the test launch of the Sarmat missile was successfully conducted at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Arkhangelsk Oblast in the north. The Sarmat is a silo-launched, three-stage liquid-fueled ICBM developed since 2009 by the Makeyev Rocket Design Bureau under the Federal Space Agency, located near the Ural Mountains in Chelyabinsk Oblast.

With a maximum range of 18,000 km, the Sarmat is known to be capable of carrying up to 15 megaton-class (equivalent to 1 million tons of TNT) nuclear warheads. The power of its nuclear warheads is estimated to be more than 2,000 times greater than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, during the Pacific War.