Ukrainian Firm Builds 100 Cruise Missiles Monthly for Strikes Deep Into Russia

Ukraine’s nascent defense sector has quietly reached a milestone that reshapes the battlefield: a single firm now produces roughly 100 Flamingo cruise missiles each month, sustaining a deep-strike campaign that reaches far beyond the front lines.

This surge in output signals a transformation. After years of relying on foreign-supplied weaponry, and often facing restrictions on their use, Ukraine has cultivated an industrial base capable of hitting targets deep inside Russian territory. The firm behind this shift, Fire Point, has evolved from a tiny startup into a sprawling operation in just a few years.

Chief executive Iryna Terekh confirmed that every deep strike executed in recent months relied on the company’s technology. Daily attacks involving Fire Point’s munitions number between five and 15, she said. Production had temporarily stalled due to a holdup in approving €90 billion in EU loans. Now that the funding has been unblocked, factories have roared back to life.

The Flamingo missile carries a 1,150-kilogram explosive payload, powerful enough to breach concrete fortifications. In June, one such weapon struck a Russian military components plant in Cheboksary, located more than 600 miles from Kharkiv. Because of the route’s complexity, the missile’s actual flight covered approximately 1,800 kilometers, a distance Terekh called among the longest in cruise missile history. Each Flamingo costs just under $600,000, a fraction of the $3.5 million price tag on a U.S. Tomahawk.

Alongside these missiles, Fire Point churns out hundreds of FP-1 and FP-2 fixed-wing drones every day. The lighter FP-1 models, priced between $55,000 and $75,000 apiece, have a range exceeding 1,000 miles. They have hammered Russian oil refineries, slashing production by 20 percent and triggering fuel shortages.

The manufacturing footprint has ballooned to 83 facilities inside Ukraine and one in Denmark. Headcount has nearly doubled since late last year, reaching 6,000 employees. Former U.S. Army Europe commander Ben Hodges noted that the combination of precision, range, and destructive payload represents the culmination of years of focused Ukrainian effort. He argued these weapons can now reliably penetrate Russian air defenses.

This industrial sprint closes a critical capability gap. Ukrainian intelligence estimates Russia produces up to 70 Kh-101 air-launched cruise missiles, 25 Kalibr naval cruise missiles, and 60 Iskander-M ballistic missiles per month. Fire Point’s output, combined with its development of Ukraine’s first ballistic missiles expected to launch by year-end, brings a new symmetry to the long-range war.

Meanwhile, a variant of the short-range FP-7 will anchor the Freyja initiative, a multinational project involving nine European nations that aims to field an alternative to the American Patriot air defense system. Fire Point will supply launchers and interceptors targeting a cost of $1 million each. Terekh expressed admiration for Patriot technology but stressed that worldwide production of PAC-3 missiles totals only 600 to 700 units annually. That entire yearly stockpile was consumed during two weeks of combat in the Middle East, she observed. The Freyja system’s first test is now scheduled for July of next year.

The company remains mostly owned by its founder, businessman Denys Shtilerman. Terekh, an architecture graduate who joined when the staff numbered 18, views the enterprise as evidence of a wider national reinvention forced by invasion. She insists postwar Ukraine must become an exporter of high-value technology rather than the agricultural breadbasket of decades past. For the moment, though, the exigencies of war keep Fire Point’s arsenal at home.