Is Ukraine's Flamingo Missile Just Hype?
There are worrying signs that Ukraine’s Flamingo cruise missile is mostly a marketing ploy.
The new Fire Point FP-5 Flamingo ground-launched cruise missile is just the thing Ukraine needs to extend its campaign of deep strikes deeper into Russia while inflicting more damage on critical targets such as oil refineries.
Or the FP-5 is made-in-Ukraine vaporware: a domestically developed weapon that mostly exists in marketing brochures.
There’s reason to worry the latter is more likely.
Based on the available evidence, there have been just four Flamingo raids involving potentially just nine missiles and resulting in damage to two targets. Equally concerning, a recent lack of evidence indicates it’s been two months since Ukrainian forces last fired a Flamingo in anger.
It’s increasingly apparent Fire Point isn’t delivering on its pledge to produce hundreds of Flamingos every month starting last fall. That could have serious implications for Ukraine’s deep strike campaign, which Kyiv hopes will inflict enough economic damage on Russia to nudge Moscow toward a ceasefire or a lasting peace.
