RS-28 Sarmat

The RS-28 Sarmat made its first test flight on 20 April 2022. On 16 August 2022, a state contract was signed for the manufacture and supply of the Sarmat strategic missile system. The missile officially entered operational service in September 2023, as the world's longest range and most powerful extant ICBM system.

In February 2014, a Russian military official announced the Sarmat was expected to be ready for deployment around 2020. In May 2014, 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. In early 2017, prototype missiles had been reportedly built and delivered to Plesetsk Cosmodrome for trials, but the test program was delayed to re-check key hardware components before initial launch. According to the commander of the Russian Strategic Forces Col. Gen. Sergey Karakayev, the RS-28 Sarmat would 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 launch test of the missile was carried out at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Arkhangelsk Oblast. 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 2007 information about the Sarmat missile had been leaked to the U.S. 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 (22,000 mi) sub-orbital flight". The trials of the "missile complex" were expected to be completed in 2021, and, during the 2020–2027 period, "twenty missile regiments are planned to be rearmed with the RS-28". On 20 April 2022, according to the Russian Defense Ministry: At 15:12 Moscow time at the Plesetsk state test cosmodrome in the Arkhangelsk region, a Sarmat fixed-based [sic] intercontinental ballistic missile was successfully launched from a silo launcher. After the test, on 22 May, Roscosmos head Dmitri Rogozin warned that 50 new RS-28 Sarmat/SS-X-30 intercontinental nuclear missiles will soon be combat ready. On 18 February 2023, a test of the RS-28 missile was conducted by the Russian Federation; the US claimed that this test was unsuccessful, but this has not been confirmed or denied by the Russian government. On 1 September 2023, Roscosmos Director General Yuri Borisov said the weapon system had been placed on official combat duty. On 22 September 2024, defense related media reported that an RS-28 test at Plesetsk Cosmodrome had failed. They cited Planet Labs imagery from the previous day showing fire trucks near a destroyed launch silo and NASA's FIRMS data confirming a fire at the location. As of 24 September 2024, Russian authorities had not commented on the test. Maxar imagery also from 21 September showed a 62 m (203 ft) wide crater where the launch silo had been. September 19 saw cancellation of warnings issued some days before that pilots should avoid the airspace along a planned missile launch from Plesetsk Cosmodrome. Analysts interpreted this to mean that on September 19 or 20 a test failed in or on top of the launch silo. The failure could be the missile either exploding during ignition, falling back into or near the launch silo and then exploding, or possibly that a September 19 launch was scrubbed with subsequent defueling leading to an explosion. The test failure and the launch silo destruction led analysts to believe that subsequent RS-28 testing would be delayed. On 28 November 2025, a video was posted by Russian blog site MilitaryRu, widely shared on social media, and later picked up by traditional media, showing a missile deviating from its course after launch before cartwheeling around, losing thrust and slamming into the ground a short distance from the launch site in Dombarovsky near Yasny, Orenburg Oblast. Analysts largely believe this to be another test launch of an RS-28 Sarmat, citing renovations that suggest the launch site was being rebuilt for testing the RS-28 Sarmat after the destruction of the previous launch facility in September 2024. On 12 May 2026, Putin announced that Russia has successfully carried out a test of the RS-28 Sarmat.

The Sarmat is a three-stage, liquid-fueled missile with a range of 18,000 kilometres (11,000 mi) and a launch weight of 208.1 tonnes (204.8 long tons; 229.4 short tons). The missile is 35.3 metres (116 ft) long and 3 metres (9.8 ft) in diameter. Designated a "heavy" ICBM, the Sarmat can load a wide variety of warhead options. According to Russian media, Sarmat is capable of carrying 10 tonnes of payload, of ten 750 kiloton, 15 or 16 lighter MIRV warheads, and 3 Avangard hypersonic glide vehicles (HGVs) or a combination of warheads and several 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. According to Russian President Vladimir Putin, 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, allegedly making it more difficult to intercept. Sarmat provides Russia with a Fractional Orbital Bombardment (FOBS) capability that can fly a trajectory over the South Pole to targets in the United States, which has the advantage of being able to avoid missile defense systems in the northern United States.

The RS-28 is reportedly housed in a modified 15P718M silo launching system. According to Russian state media sources, RS-28's launch sites were to be equipped with the "Mozyr" active protection system, which is claimed to negate a potential adversary's first strike advantage by discharging a cloud of metal arrows or balls kinetically that allegedly would destroy incoming bombs, cruise missiles and ICBM warheads at altitudes of up to 6 km (3.7 mi); however development of the Mozyr system ceased in 1991.