Military expert says Ukraine will be able to produce dozens of ballistic missiles per month
Ukraine could soon be capable of producing several dozen ballistic missiles per month, and "with that number of missiles, we can bring Russia's military-industrial complex to its knees," according to military expert Pavlo Narozhnyi.
According to Ukrinform, Narozhnyi made the remarks on Ukrainian Radio.
He noted that both state-owned and private Ukrainian companies are currently working on ballistic missile development.
"First of all, we have two tracks – state and private. The state program is well known: the Sapsan missile system. On the private side, there is Fire Point with its ballistic missile projects. Unfortunately, we know nothing about the state program, as no public information is available. The private company, however, has been relatively open and has stated that testing has already taken place," Narozhnyi said.
He added that the company is working on both a ballistic missile and a missile for an air defense system, which are technically very similar.
"The project involves a missile with a range of up to 900 kilometers and a warhead weighing up to 500 kilograms. In essence, this would be a direct counterpart to Russia's Iskander-M or North Korea's KN-23 missiles, which the enemy unfortunately uses against us and for which there are currently limited countermeasures," he said.
According to Narozhnyi, Ukraine's future missile production capacity could have a significant impact on Russia's defense industry.
"The main challenge is manufacturing solid-fuel rocket motors. Previously, this was done at the Pavlohrad Chemical Plant. Unfortunately, Pavlohrad is very close to the front line. That is why Fire Point plans to manufacture these engines in Denmark to protect production from missile strikes or potential sabotage."
"Is it possible? I have absolutely no doubt that it is realistic, and we will see it happen. It is difficult to predict exact numbers, but I hope we will see up to ten, and perhaps even several dozen missiles produced per month. Russia is capable of manufacturing between 60 and 100 missiles monthly. Our capacity will likely be lower, but even with that number of missiles, we can bring Russia's military-industrial complex to its knees," Narozhnyi said.
Asked whether Russia possesses effective defenses against the missiles Ukraine expects to field, the expert said only its most advanced air defense systems would be capable of intercepting them, such as the S-400 and S-500, and Russia has very few of them.
"Just as we closely follow every new Patriot system delivered to Ukraine and negotiations over interceptor missiles at the highest levels, the situation is similar in Russia. Yes, they have more missiles, but they have only around 50 of these advanced air defense systems, while the territory they need to protect is far larger," Narozhnyi added.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky recently confirmed that Ukrainian FP-5 Flamingo missiles struck a military plant in Cheboksary that supplies components for Russian drones and missiles.
Photo: Screenshot from a Fire Point video