Germany Buys 100s of Cruise Missiles for Ukraine
The missiles range 500 miles
Germany is arming Ukraine with a huge arsenal of deep-strike munitions, including long-range drones and new cruise missiles.
In the span of two weeks, the German government signaled separate investments in Ukraine’s best attack drone—the Ukroboronprom An-196 Liutyi (“Furious”)—as well as its first mass-producible cruise missile, apparently the Bars (“Leopard”).
Once deliveries begin, Ukrainian forces should be capable of striking Russian targets as far away as 500 miles, and with a range of effects. The drones would fly slower and may carry lighter, 110-pound warheads. The missiles should fly faster and hit harder with heavier warheads weighing perhaps twice as much.
In underwriting Ukraine’s expanding deep-strike complex, Germany is helping Ukraine do to Russia what Russia has been doing to Ukraine throughout its 41-month wider war on the country: disrupt Russian command, logistics and production where the Russians are most vulnerable—at home.
Major Gen. Christian Freuding, the head of the German defense ministry’s Situation Center Ukraine, announced the missile deal in early July. In comments to ZDF Heute, Freuding said Germany would finance the production of hundreds of long-range munitions. The weapons would begin arriving in Ukraine within weeks.
Just days prior, Welt broke the news that Germany would also finance as many as 500 Liutyi attack drones. The propeller-driven, satellite-guided Liutyi carries a 110-pound warhead farther than 500 miles. The $200,000 drone can follow a complex flight path and change altitude in order to avoid Russian air-defenses.
The An-196 already had German connections even before Berlin’s big spend on the type. The 12-foot drone sports a German-made Hirth F-23 aviation engine producing 50 horsepower.
Ukrainian Pres. Volodymyr Zelensky anticipated Ukrainian industry would build 30,000 long-range attack drones in 2025. The An-196s are among the most capable of these drones.
The Liutyis have been responsible for some of the most damaging strikes on targets deep inside Russia. Before Ukraine paused strikes on Russian oil facilities this spring, apparently bowing to pressure from the United States, the An-196s accounted for up to 80% of hits on refineries.
It’s not for no reason Russian forces have been trying so hard to locate and strike the workshops that produce the An-196s and the teams that launch them.
Hard-hitting missiles
The turbojet Bars ranges around as far as the propeller-driven Liutyi does, but should impact harder thanks to a bigger warhead and be more survivable owing to its likely higher speed. An An-196 motors along at slower than 200 miles per hour; most cruise missiles travel twice as fast. The Bars is reportedly capable of ground and aerial launch.
The Ukrainian air force has modified its Sukhoi Su-24 bombers to carry British-made Storm Shadow and French-made SCALP cruise missiles that are 17 feet long and weigh nearly 3,000 pounds. The Bars should be smaller and lighter, and may also be compatible with the Su-24s.
The pro-Ukraine Conflict Intelligence Team noted that Ukraine has other domestically developed cruise missiles, including the Peklo, the Palianytsia and the Ruta. “Two years ago, the only such indigenous development was the R-360 Neptune subsonic cruise missile,” CIT observed.
The Neptune proved too complex and, at a cost of $1.5 million, also too expensive for mass production. “The Neptune appears to have been produced in limited numbers and used only sparingly,” CIT explained. “The only confirmed instance was a May 2024 strike in Russia’s Krasnodar region.”
We don’t know how much a Bars costs, but it’s almost certainly less than $1.5 million. “Its main advantage is reportedly its potential for mass production within Ukraine,” CIT noted.
“The extent to which the new Bars missile will affect the front line will depend entirely on how many are made available to the Ukrainian military,” CIT wrote. Considering that Russia produces 600 or so of its best Kh-101 cruise missiles every year, the hundreds of Bars the Germans are apparently financing should help the Ukrainians approach, although not yet achieve, cruise missile parity with the Russians.
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