The Ukrainian army has successfully tested its own ballistic missile, which could take strikes against russian military facilities to a new level. Although the missile programme is strictly classified, military analysts have tried to describe Ukraine's new armament

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For the first time since the start of a full-scale war in 2022, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said that the Ukrainian army has successfully tested its own ballistic missile.

‘I thought it was too early to talk about it, but there has already been a test - positive - of the first Ukrainian ballistic missile. I congratulate our military-industrial complex on this,’ the president said.

Zelenskyy stressed that the creation of its own ballistic missile demonstrates the high level of Ukrainian specialists in the defence industry.

It is worth noting that back in July, the Ukrainian leader said that the Ukrainian missile programme had ‘good dynamics’. At the same time, he said that Ukraine was gradually approaching the possibility of using its own missiles and not only relying on deliveries from partners.

What is known about Ukrainian missiles?

It is worth noting that Ukraine already has ballistic missiles in service, but not of Ukrainian manufacture. We are talking about the Tochka-U and ATACMS missiles. The first one is a weapon developed back in the Soviet Union, and the second one is the help of American partners.

However, these missiles are quite few and their kill radius is estimated at a maximum of 300 kilometres.

Ukraine's new ballistic missile

Defence Express military observer believes that the President's words can be perceived in such a way that he is talking categorically about the domestic Sapsan, aka Grom-2, anti-missile defence system.

They recall that back in November 2023, the AFU for the first time during the war spoke about the cases with the Grom-2, and it was interesting the hint that was given by the head of the Main Directorate of Rocket Troops and Artillery and Unmanned Systems of the AFU General Staff, Brigadier General Sergei Baranov, on the air of Army FM.

In addition, we should not forget that all this time the domestic programme ‘Grom-2’ did not give rest to the russian occupants. And here we can recall reports that the russian Ministry of Defence has begun to ‘shoot down’ ballistic ‘Grom-2’. 

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What is known about the Grom-2?

The operational-tactical missile system is the first such development of the independent Ukrainian military-industrial complex. The development of this missile began to be planned at the end of the last century, after the collapse of the USSR. At that time Ukraine decided that it needed a tactical missile with a range of up to 500 kilometres.

The project of the Grom complex was developed only in 2013. At that time it was noted that this is a new-generation precision weapon, capable of ensuring the creation of a reliable shield of non-nuclear deterrence, both for Ukraine itself and for any state.

In 2018, it became known that the test of homing heads for the missile of the complex was completed. A year later, it was claimed that the prototype ‘Grom-2’ is ready for testing in the ‘near future’.

It is worth noting that Ukrainian media speculated that Ukraine had tested the missile and several samples were still delivered to the army. For example, after the start of a full-scale war, there were speculations about the use of ‘Grom’ on russian airfields. However, there is no confirmation of this information.

Ukrainian defence industry shows growth

At the same time, analysts believe that the announcement of a successful test of a domestic ballistic missile means, on the whole, a significant increase in the capabilities of our defence industry. After all, we are talking about the fact that regardless of the type of the product, it must be produced in the volume necessary for testing, and this is quite an extraordinary task, given the constant missile strikes on Ukraine.

Moreover, a separate challenge here could be to maintain secrecy while continuing to work on the development of the project at the necessary pace.

Even though we do not know exactly what product we are talking about, it is obvious that it had to be tested in practice, i.e. a test launch. And to do this, regardless of where in fact and in what geographical location the tests were carried out, was another particularly difficult task.

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