Zelensky: Ukraine plans to produce 3000 cruise missiles
19 November, 2024 Ukrainian Neptune cruise missile.
2024. Ukraine. A frame from the video of the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi
Ukraine plans to produce three thousand cruise missiles and drone missiles to provide the Defense Forces with strike capabilities. According to MP Yaroslav Zhelezniak, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced this during a speech in the Verkhovna Rada on Tuesday, November 19. The President introduced the Resilience Plan to the MPs.
It will be presented in its entirety with all the annexes in December this year. According to Zhelezniak, the President confirmed that Ukraine has developed a long-range version of the Neptune missile to hit ground targets. Zelensky said that there have already been the first hits on the aggressor country's facilities with these missiles.
Therefore, the President set a task for the Ukrainian defense industry to produce 3,000 cruise missiles and drone missiles. The day before, Ukraine's Defense Minister Rustem Umerov reported that this year, Ukraine managed to improve and scale up the serial production of Neptune missiles. According to him, the production of Ukrainian missiles is now increasing.
"We have successfully scaled up the mass production of R-360 Neptune cruise missiles with improvements to hit targets at longer distances," the Minister stated. According to the President, the Ukrainian military-industrial complex produced more than a hundred missile weapons in 2024.
The launch of a Neptune missile. Photo credits: Alexei Bobovnikov
In early August 2024, it was announced that the government had allocated additional funds for the Ukrainian missile program.
In late September, it was reported that Ukraine would spend part of the EU loan funds secured by frozen Russian assets on purchasing domestic long-range missiles and drones.
Neptune cruise missiles
Before the full-scale invasion, Ukraine developed the R-360 Neptune anti-ship cruise missile. And for the first time, its adaptation to hit ground targets became known in April 2023. At that time, a representative of the Ukrainian defense ministry told The Drive on condition of anonymity that designers were working on modifying the missile to hit ground targets.
The publication reports that the new missile can be launched from the same launcher as before. It has a maximum range of 400 km and a warhead weighing 350 kg (150 kg for the anti-ship version). In December 2023, Lieutenant General Ivan Havryliuk, Ukraine's Deputy Minister of Defense, confirmed the information about the modernization of the Neptune missile.
Since then, the Ukrainian Defense Forces have repeatedly launched Neptune missiles.
The publicly reported targets included oil terminals, ammunition depots, S-400 air defense systems, and military air bases.