The commander of the Strategic Rocket Forces, Sergey Karakayev, confirmed today that the new Sarmat missile will be deployed "with the Uzhur missile division and in the Dombarovskiy deployment area (позиционный район)." This is not exactly the news - there are not very many bases that can accommodate the new missile. Besides, it was already reported back in 2014, although with a reference to an unnamed source. The 2014 report was a bit more detailed - it said that the total of 46 missiles will be deployed.

Meanwhile, the tests of the new missile have been delayed again - the original plan was to conduct the first pop-up test from a silo in 2015, but that was moved to the spring of 2016 and now - to the second quarter of 2016 [UPDATE: It has been moved even further down - to the second half of 2016]. It is unlikely that the missile will be ready for deployment in 2018, as promised, but 2020 does not seem entirely impossible.

Although Sarmat is usually described as a "heavy" ICBM that is supposed to replace the heavy SS-18, it appears that the new missile will be closer to SS-19, as it will weigh about 100 tonnes (thanks to artjomh for finding this story from 2012). Sarmat might still be technically a "heavy" missile, since it is defined (in SALT II) as any ICBM that has "a launch-weight greater or a throw-weight greater than" SS-19, which are 105 tonnes and 4,350 kg respectively. I have my doubts about the much-advertised 10 tonnes throw-weight, but we probably cannot rule it out at this point.