Daily Mail Online:

Russia is planning to flight test its new intercontinental ballistic missile which it claims is capable of destroying an area the size of France.

The RS-18 Sarmat will be capable of unleashing ten large thermonuclear warheads or 16 smaller ones, or a combination of both, to overwhelm enemy missile defenses, according to the Russian Ministry of Defense.

The 100-ton strategic missile is said to be able to travel around 6,200 miles and has the capacity to wipe out areas the size of Texas or France.

Each of the warheads are allegedly capable of being aimed at a different target.

The development comes as Russia’s defense minister reported to President Vladimir Putin that a new hypersonic weapon of intercontinental range became operational in December, following years of tests.

The testing of the Sarmat missile has faced a number of delays but now officials say it will enter service with Russia’s Strategic Missile Forces in 2022.

Alexey Krivoruchko, the country’s Deputy Minister of Defense told military newspaper Krasnaya Zvezda that flight tests of the missile are imminent.

‘I would like to note that today the Sarmat missile ejection tests have been completed with a positive result,’ he said.

‘In the near future, we will begin flight tests of this missile system.’

The ejection tests, or drop tests, limit the firing to the first-stage engine, forcing the missile out of the silo into the air…

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