MOSCOW. March 22 (Interfax) - The work on the new Russian intercontinental ballistic missile Sarmat is going according to schedule, Roscosmos head Dmitry Rogozin said.
"We have now started a leading project, the Sarmat. The president spoke about it in his address to the Federal Assembly. It is a heavy ballistic missile capable of overcoming, tearing to pieces any air defense system, current or future, it doesn't matter," Rogozin said on Rossiya 24 (VGTRK) television on Friday.
"It is a foundation of the country's strategic planning," Rogozin said about the ICBM Sarmat, serial production of which is expected to begin at Roscosmos's machine-building factory Krasmash.
"The Defense Ministry is working with our corporation directly. We are not advertising this work, for obvious reasons. I can say only one thing: the main work on state defense contracts is going according to plan. We are working according to schedule. We hope that the Defense Ministry as our main customer will not have any problems with our undertakings. And if they have, we will intervene and help resolve them," Rogozin said on the preparations for the production of the Sarmat missile.
Russia has begun a new stage of Sarmat tests, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said on February 20. According to earlier reports, the ICBM Sarmat had successfully passed pop-up tests and preparations were underway for flight tests.
The ICBM RS-28 Sarmat will replace the world's most powerful strategic silo-based missile RS-20V Voevoda (SS-18 Satan in the NATO classification) in the Uzhurskaya (Krasnoyarsk Territory) and Dombarovskaya (Orenburg region) divisions of Strategic Missile Troops.