AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky
Ukraine has started making a new cruise missile said to be capable of carrying a 1,000 kg warhead with a range of 1,800 miles, according to its defense minister.
Denys Shmyhal, who was appointed as defense minister in July, said at a public event on Monday that serial production of the missile, dubbed the Flamingo, had begun.
The minister declined to discuss the missile further, saying that more details would be disclosed “when the right time comes.”
But his announcement comes a day after other sources in Ukraine reported on its specifications. Efrem Lukatsky, an Associated Press photographer, published an image on Monday of a large missile that he identified as the Flamingo.
Lukatsky’s Facebook post said the photo was taken on Thursday at a workshop run by Fire Point, a Ukrainian defense company. He also wrote that the missile had a range of 3,000 kilometers, or roughly 1,800 miles.
After Lukatsky’s Facebook post, the Ukrainian newspaper Mirror of the Week uploaded a video on Monday of what appears to be the missile being launched from an open field.
In the clip, the Flamingo is seen rail-mounted on a canted platform before it is fired. The missile starts climbing upward almost immediately after launch.
Mirror of the Week reported that the video depicted a Flamingo missile launched at a Russian target, indicating that the weapon is already being used in combat.
In another video from the outlet, the missile is seen with fixed wings, like the Flamingo photographed by Lukatsky.
The outlet wrote in a report on Monday that Fire Point said it tested the Flamingo several months ago and that the missile had entered mass production. Mirror of the Week also reported that the missile can carry a maximum payload of 1,150 kg with a range of 1,800 miles.
The Flamingo looks a lot like another new missile
The Flamingo bears a striking resemblance to the FP-5 produced by Milanion Group, a defense firm headquartered in Abu Dhabi that’s been working with Ukraine since at least 2021.
That year, the firm signed a memorandum of understanding with a Ukrainian company. Since the full-scale war started, it’s also been providing its Alakran mobile mortar system and uncrewed ground vehicles to Kyiv’s troops.
Milanion Group showcased the FP-5 in February at a defense expo in Abu Dhabi. There, it said the missile is equipped with anti-jamming tech and satellite navigation and can fly for up to four hours at a top cruise speed of 559 mph.
The firm also said the FP-5 can carry a payload of up to 1,000 kg and fly 1,800 miles.
That capability also means the FP-5 is a gargantuan missile, with a 20-foot wingspan and a take-off weight of 6,000 kg, or 6.6 tons. That kind of size and weight for a cruise missile hasn’t typically been seen in modern Western militaries since the early Cold War.
By comparison, the US-made Tomahawk cruise missile has a take-off weight of up to 1,600 kg and carries a 450-kg warhead. And Russia’s long-range Kh-101 cruise missile, which can fly up to 3,400 miles, has a take-off weight of roughly 2,400 kg.
US Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Jonathan Word
In its brochure on the FP-5, Milanion Group said it could build over 50 of the missiles a month.
Despite these similarities, it’s still unconfirmed if the Flamingo or the FP-5 are directly related. Milanion Group did not respond to a request for comment about the Flamingo sent by Business Insider outside regular business hours.
Ukraine wants a long-range threat
A range of 1,800 miles would allow Ukraine to strike deeper into Russia, potentially at military production facilities. A new missile of such devastating power and range means it can potentially threaten Russian hubs for armor, infantry fighting vehicles, drones, and artillery systems in the Ural Mountains, located some 1,000 miles from Ukraine.
So far, Kyiv has relied mainly on slower one-way attack drones that resemble Cessna-style aircraft to attack Russian oil refineries and manufacturing plants in the Moscow area and beyond. The distance between Kyiv and Moscow, for example, is just 450 miles.
Yelabuga, a special economic zone where Russia is believed to be manufacturing its version of the Shahed drone, is also roughly 800 miles from Ukraine.
Ukraine has shown before that it can locally manufacture cruise missiles while at war. Its homemade anti-ship missile, the Neptune, is a subsonic truck-launched weapon that was used to sink the Moskva, the flagship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet.
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