Russia launches new missile; Putin dares NATO

The Russian defense ministry announced Wednesday that it had conducted a test launch of its intercontinental ballistic missile, the Sarmat.

The missile was fired from a silo launcher at 3:12 p.m. Moscow time at the Plesetsk State Test Cosmodrome in the Arkhangelsk Region of northern Russia toward the Kura test site on the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia’s far east.

The defense ministry’s statement said that it landed in the “designated area in Kamchatka.”

The ministry noted that after the completion of a test program, the Sarmat would go into service with Russia’s Strategic Missile Forces. The RS-28 Sarmat is designed to replace the Soviet-era Voevoda ICBM, known by the NATO designation SS-18 Satan.

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin congratulated the military on their successful missile test, saying it would “give thought to those who are trying to threaten Russia,” according to the ministry statement as quoted by the state-run TASS news agency.

The Sarmat was one of the weapons Putin mentioned in a 2018 speech boasting of new weaponry he said would render NATO defenses “completely useless.” US officials played down the threat at the time.

CNN