Russia's Sarmat ICBM Can Change Trajectory, Interception Hardly Possible In Coming Decades

PETROPAVLOVSK-KAMCHATSKIY (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 22nd May, 2022) KAMCHATSKIY, May 22 (Sputnik) - Sarmat, Russia's newest land-based intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), can fly over the North and South Poles and along other trajectories, Col. Gen. Sergei Karakaev, Commander of Russia's Strategic Missile Forces, said.

"Due to the power-to-weight ratio of the new missile system, the trajectory has the ability to change. From our notorious trajectory through the North Pole, if necessary, it is possible to lay a trajectory through the South Pole, which, in principle, is not protected today. And there are also possibilities for other trajectories - in terms of the possibility of launching into outer space," Karakaev told the Zvezda tv channel.

He added that, in the coming decades, it will be hardly possible to create means of intercepting Sarmat.

"...today, they say that air defense does not exist for the Sarmat missile system, and it probably will not exist in the coming decades," Karakaev predicted.

Russia will be testing Sarmat throughout this year and the military will start receiving the missiles in the fall of 2022 , according to Dmitry Rogozin, the head of Russian state-run space agency Roscosmos.