A photo from the production line of Ukraine’s new cruise missile, Flamingo, featuring an extreme size and a range of 3000 km, was recently shared in the media.
Flamingo, with the longest reach and biggest punch out of any cruise missile or kamikaze UAV in Ukraine’s inventory, has seemingly entered serial production.
The cruise missile packs a 1000 kg warhead and can reach a range of 3000 km. Such figures are owed to the total weight of the missile at 6000 kg.
The development of Flamingo might have been inspired by the success of long-range attacks using kamikaze UAVs and a brief use of Tu-143 target UAVs converted to act as cruise missiles.
Flamingo, without any seeker, uses GNSS with a CPRA antenna and INS for guidance.
Due to the extreme size and weight, Flamingo is only suitable for launch using a ground platform, which is likely to be a trailer or a fixed rail.
A previous infographic published by Milanion does not indicate any terrain-hugging capability, which helps with bypassing enemy radars.
It could be concluded that Ukraine’s tactics regarding Flamingo will revolve around targeting the less protected military or industrial facilities on the Russian mainland with a 3000 km range and an extremely large warhead.
Author: Kaan Azman
Editor:Özgür Ekşi
