Ukraine Brings 3000km Range Cruise Missile Into Mass Production: ‘Flamingo’ Program Promises More Deep Strikes Into Russia

Ukraine’s defence sector has begun serial production of the new Flamingo cruise missile, which has the potential to revolutionise its armed forces’ ability to launch strikes deep into Russian territory. The missile class has a range exceeding 3000 kilometres, allowing it to strike targets across European Russia and into Siberia. The subsonic missile has a speed of Mach 0.75, making it one of the slowest in the world, although it carries an above average warhead size at 1000 kilograms. Ukrainian journalist Yefrem Lukatsky published an image of one of the missiles, possibly a prototype or early production model, at an undisclosed location.

The Ukrainain Armed Forces and the country’s supporters in the Western world have placed a growing emphasis on the ability to strike high value targets deep inside Russian territory, with the most successful effort to do so being realised on June 1 when a large scale drone attack on multipleairbases across Russia’s northern and western regions was launched from inside Russian territory under Operation Spider’s Web.Satellite footage confirmed the destruction of multiple Tu-95MS and Tu-22M3 strategic bombers, causing losses from which the Russian strategic aviation fleet is expected to take years to recover. A new cruise missile class could enable attacks on airbases and critical infrastructure across much of the country.

The announcement of the Flamingo missile’s entry into serial production closely follows reports that Russian strikes had devastated Ukrainian defence industrial facilities contributing to producing long-range missile systems, marking a major setback to the Ukrainian Sapsan ballistic missile program. Sites targeted included chemical and mechanical plants in Pavlograd, as well as the Zvezda plant and State Scientific Research Institute of Chemical Products in Shostka. The missile program was thought to have been largely funded by Germany, with Chancellor Friedrich Merz having announced in May that Berlin would finance Ukrainian production of long range missiles. The announcement may be intended to restore confidence in the Ukrainian war effort, on the basis that the Sapsan program was not the only long range missile program being pursued. Russia’s ability to launch strikes across Ukraine using a wide range of missile and drone classes, and Ukraine’s relatively limited ability to strike targets deeper inside Russia, has left Ukraine and supporting foreign forces at a significant disadvantage since the outset of full scale hostilities in early 2022.