The Diplomat:
Russia will test launch its deadliest nuclear weapon currently under development, the new super-heavy thermonuclear-armed intercontinental-range ballistic missile (ICBM) RS-28 Sarmat (NATO designation: SS-X-30 Satan 2) twice before the year’s end, according to Russian defense ministry sources. The missile is expected to be fired from a silo at the Plesetsk space center, located in Arkhangelsk Oblast, approximately 800 kilometers north of Moscow.
The first test launch of this year was originally scheduled for March. Then it was moved to April due to the need for additional tests of hardware components in the Sarmat’s test stands. From April, the test was rescheduled to July and then to the fall. As I reported in March, the Sarmat’s ejection test alone — which tests the mechanism of a missile leaving its launch container — had to be postponed over five times. (Originally, the first ejection test was to occur in 2015, but was then pushed back to 2016 and now to the last quarter of 2017.)
