MOSCOW — Russia on Tuesday test-fired its new Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile, a milestone President Vladimir Putin praised as part of a broader program to modernize Moscow’s nuclear forces. The launch was announced on May 12, 2026, and Kremlin statements said the weapon is expected to enter service by the end of the year.
Putin described the Sarmat as the world’s most powerful missile and said the combined yield of its individually targeted warheads far exceeds that of Western equivalents — a claim he used to underline Russia’s strategic strength. The Sarmat is intended to replace the aging Soviet-era Voyevoda missiles.
Since ordering troops into Ukraine in February 2022, Putin has frequently invoked Russia’s nuclear arsenal to deter deeper Western support for Kyiv. This latest test came days after he said the fighting in Ukraine was nearing its end, following a Victory Day parade on Red Square that for the first time in nearly 20 years omitted heavy weapons displays.
Under Putin’s leadership, Russia has steadily overhauled the Soviet-era components of its nuclear triad. Officials say Moscow has deployed hundreds of new land-based ICBMs, put new nuclear submarines into service and upgraded nuclear-capable bombers — moves that prompted a costly U.S. modernization effort in response. The last remaining arms control agreement between Washington and Moscow expired in February, leaving no formal limits on the two countries’ arsenals for the first time in more than half a century and stoking concerns about an unconstrained nuclear arms race.
Known in the West as ‘Satan II,’ the Sarmat program began in 2011. Russian officials say it will replace roughly 40 Voyevoda missiles. Prior to this test, the missile had one publicly confirmed successful flight test and was reported to have suffered a major explosion during an attempted test in 2024.
Putin and Russian military spokespeople have emphasized the Sarmat’s range and ability to evade defenses. They say it can fly on suborbital trajectories that extend beyond 35,000 kilometers (about 21,700 miles), giving it greater options to penetrate prospective missile defenses and offering higher accuracy than its predecessor.
The Sarmat is part of a wider suite of weapons Moscow has been unveiling and deploying. That effort includes the Avangard hypersonic glide vehicle, which Russian officials say travels many times the speed of sound and whose first units are reportedly in service; the Oreshnik (a new intermediate-range ballistic missile whose conventionally armed variant Russia has used against targets in Ukraine); and strategic systems Putin says are in late development, such as the Poseidon nuclear-capable underwater drone and the Burevestnik nuclear-powered cruise missile.
Russian descriptions of those systems portray them as counters to U.S. missile defenses. Moscow argues that American efforts to build a missile shield, which date back to Washington’s 2001 withdrawal from a Cold War-era accord limiting defenses, compelled Russia to pursue new offensive capabilities to preserve strategic parity. Russian military planners have voiced concern that a robust missile defense could tempt a first strike by diminishing the perceived effectiveness of Moscow’s retaliatory forces.
‘We had to take steps to ensure our strategic security in the face of a new reality,’ Putin said, framing the weapons program as necessary to maintain a balance of power.
Western officials have repeatedly warned that public Russian claims about capabilities and performance should be treated with caution. Independent verification of many of the more novel systems remains limited, and the technical and safety challenges of some programs — notably those involving nuclear propulsion or unconventional delivery modes — have been subject to skepticism.
Still, the Sarmat launch underscores Moscow’s continued commitment to renewing its strategic forces and highlights the growing absence of bilateral arms control constraints that for decades helped regulate the world’s two largest nuclear arsenals.