Ukraine produces its own rockets, but it is hard to call itself a rocketry country. This was was stated director of the Come Back Alive charity foundation Taras Chmut in an interview with Pressing, Komersant ukrainskyi
reports.
He says their number is not enough to fulfil the tasks of the Defence Forces.
“10 missiles a year. Can we say that we are making missiles? We probably can. Can we win or achieve our goals with ten missiles? Obviously, no. When we talk about such complex topics, it is important to have enough inside information to draw the right conclusions,” Taras Chmut
According to the volunteer, if we talk about long-range weapons of our own production, Ukraine has them and this is not new.
“The issue of having missiles is quite extensive, because the Stugna anti-tank missile is also a missile. Vilkha and Neptune are also considered missiles. This means that their number per year is also different. In any case, it all depends on the type of weapon: in some places, Ukraine can produce tens of thousands a year, in others hundreds, and in others dozens of missiles,” Taras Chmut explained.
It is worth noting that Ukraine has a “Missile Programme” aimed at restoring the country’s missile potential.
In connection with the withdrawal of Russia and the United States from the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty in early February 2019 due to Russia’s violation of the Treaty, Ukraine was also released from certain obligations. This gave it the right to develop modern, effective weapons systems for self-defence, including long-range missile systems.
Design bureaus Pivdenne and Luch already have their own projects and developments in this area.
For example, Pivdenne Design Bureau, taking into account the developments of its predecessors since 1994, worked on a single-stage ballistic missile with a non-nuclear warhead, Grom-2, from 2013 to 2016.
From 2016 to 2018, Ukraine developed the Vilkha guided missile, which was adopted by the Ukrainian army in October 2018.
Ukraine also owns the R-360 Neptune anti-ship cruise missile (2015-2016), which was adopted in 2020.
In May 2018, it became known that Yuzhnoye SDO had launched a new project: the development of a new anti-aircraft guided missile, the Coral.
in 2015, Yuzhnoye SDO launched the Typhoon programme, which included four missiles: “Taifun-1, Taifun-2, Taifun-3 and 400-mm Taifun-4 for the advanced missile system. In 2020, the Taifun-1 missile entered service with the Ukrainian military.