Mr. Putin will put into service a super ballistic missile complex with a capacity of 50 million tons of explosives.

"Promising weapons systems will soon be put into service with the strategic forces. First, the Sarmat complex will be put into service from 2020, while the hypersonic glide vehicle may be ready for operation next year,"TASSquoted Russian President Vladimir Putin speaking last weekend.

The Russian President also requested to maintain the progress of modernizing the strategic nuclear forces, focusing on equipping 14 regiments with RS-24 Yars intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) this year. These units are still using outdated Topol missiles with many features inferior to the Yars model.

In his state-of-the-nation address on March 1, President Putin declared that Sarmat "can reach any location in the world." The RS-28 Sarmat complex is one of six super weapons expected to help Russia assert its superpower status, thanks to its ability to penetrate all missile shields of the US and its allies. The Russian military has test-fired the Sarmat missile twice in recent months.

Sarmat has a launch mass of nearly 110 tons, designed to overcome all current and future missile defense systems, to ensure Russia's strategic nuclear deterrence. RS-28 siloable to withstand the destructive power of 7 nuclear warheads, to increaseability to survive a first strike. Meanwhile, the US Minuteman III missile silo can only withstand the maximum destructive power of two nuclear warheads.

An unnamed Russian official said the Sarmat has a range of over 11,000 km, can carry 10-15 nuclear warheads with a total power equivalent to 50 million tons of TNT, and many decoy devices to fool enemy defense systems. The warheads have a maximum speed of 24,900 km/h, use an independent guidance system to attack many different targets. They can change direction during the re-entry phase to avoid interception.