Sputnik News:
MOSCOW, January 29 (Sputnik) — Full-scale testing of the new Russian Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile may be held in a year or year and a half after the drop tests scheduled in 2015, Lenta.Ru reported Thursday.
“If the drop tests go according to the plan and the missile performs well, it will be test launched in a year or a year and a half” according to a military source.
In the missile industry, the drop tests are primary tests aimed at performing the starting procedure of the missile.
The drop tests check the separate stages of the missile, according to the source.
“We use a special platform for checking the missile’s lift capacity,” the source said.
The schedule of the drop tests is difficult to ascertain now, but in the industry they are usually performed at the end of the year, the source added.
Earlier, Deputy Defense Minister Yuri Borisov said the drop tests of Sarmat were scheduled to his year. Besides, Russian Strategic Missile Forces commander Col. Gen. Sergei Karakayev said the new missile was set to enter service by 2020.
The Sarmat ICBM, with an operational range of no less than 5,500 kilometers (over 3,400 miles), will replace the world’s largest strategic missile Voevoda (NATO reporting name – Satan) between 2018 and 2020.
While the technical specifications are currently unknown, the missile has been designated as heavy. Earlier Borisov said Sarmat’s payload would be roughly 10 tons.
According to the classification of the START treaties, a heavy missile is a missile weighing more than 105 tons. Satan is 211 tons in bulk and has a payload of 8.7 tons.
