Ukraine’s Flamingo Cruise Missile: From Flashy Wunderwaffe to Flop
Workers inspect Flamingo missiles a Fire Point’s secret factory in Ukraine on Thursday, Aug. 14, 2025. 
Touted as a deadly strategic ‘gamechanger’ when it was first unveiled in August, the Flamingo has not only failed to live up to expectations, but threatens to become Ukraine’s next extinct weapons platform.
Specifications
Ground-launched~3k km range~500-1k kg warheadGPS guidanceSoviet-derived turbojet engineSolid rocket fuel to be produced in DenmarkSimilar to UK-based Milanion Group’s FP-5 missileMade by Fire Point – Ukrainian startup linked to a Zelensky crony
Big Threats, Small Payoff
“Zelensky once threatened that these missiles would be used to attack cities from Moscow to the Urals,” veteran Russian military expert and air defense historian Yuri Knutov recalled to Sputnik.That hasn’t happened. Instead, it was reported in September that Russia targeted Flamingo production facilities in western Ukraine. More recently, Knutov says, Iskander missiles and Geran drones reportedly attacked a column of trailers thought to be bringing missiles to a launch site.
Flamingo is a “simplified version” of British missile designs, larger and featuring fewer composite materials (judging by available images and footage), making it more visible on radar. Russia already has plenty of experience downing more advanced NATO missiles, meaning it can handle Flamingo.
AnalysisWest’s Long-Range Missiles to Ukraine All Essentially the Same & Russia’s Shooting Them Down 26 May, 14:38 GMT
Mass Launches? Unlikely
That would require a large number of launchers and their positioning near the front, Knutov says. But Russia’s military spy satellites keep track of everything, making strikes on concentrations of heavy equipment thought to be linked to long-range missile activity all but inevitable.Knutov expects Flamingo’s production sites to be found and destroyed, just as happened previously with the OTRK Sapsan. Facing constant strikes and possessing air defenses that can’t cope with Russian aerial incursions, Ukraine even tried to create defense factories underground, but even these proved untenable.
Russia’s Special Operation in UkraineRussia Strikes Ukrainian Defense Plants Developing Sapsan Missile System20 September, 10:08 GMT
