President Vladimir Putin admitted on Wednesday that Russia’s new intercontinental ballistic missile, the RS-28 Sarmat, is not yet on combat duty, but vowed that it would be deployed “soon.”
“It’s not yet deployed, but it will be soon,” Putin told wounded soldiers at a military hospital in Moscow.
The Sarmat, nicknamed “Satan 2” by Western analysts, is capable of carrying multiple nuclear warheads and is among Russia's next-generation missiles which Putin has described as “invincible.”
Russia’s space agency Roscosmos said in 2023 that the Sarmat was operational and ready for combat duty after Putin first unveiled it in 2018.
“There’s nothing like it in the world,” he told the wounded soldiers Wednesday.
The missile’s testing record remains questionable.
Open-source analysts reported in September 2024 that a Sarmat missile exploded during tests, leaving a large crater visible in satellite imagery. The Kremlin declined to comment on the reported failed test at the time.
The only confirmed successful test took place in April 2022.
During his visit with the wounded soldiers, Putin acknowledged that the Sarmat was less powerful than the Poseidon nuclear-powered super autonomous torpedo, which he said Russia has successfully tested.
On Sunday, Putin announced that Russia had tested the Burevestnik nuclear-powered intercontinental cruise missile earlier in October.
Trump called that exercise not “appropriate.”
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