Le Sarmat est l'une des six nouvelles armes stratégiques russes dévoilées par le président
russe Vladimir Poutine le 1er mars 2018. [12] Le RS-28 Sarmat devrait effectuer son premier
vol d'essai en 2022, [13] et entrer en service plus tard dans le an. [14]
In February 2014, a Russian military official announced the Sarmat is expected to be ready for
deployment around 2020.[15] 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.[16][17]
In late June 2015, it was reported that the production schedule for the first prototype of the
Sarmat was slipping.[18][19] The RS-28 Sarmat was expected to become operational in
2016.[20]
On 10 August 2016, Russia successfully tested the RS-28's first-stage engine named PDU-
99.[21]
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.[22]
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.[10]
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.[23][24]
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.[25] Shortly after, an
anonymous military source was cited as saying that the information about the Sarmat