Ukraine May Already Have 500 of Its Giant Flamingo Cruise Missiles

Missile-maker Fire Point aims to churn out hundreds of Flamingos a month

Ukraine has a giant new cruise missile—the seven-ton, 600-mile-per-hour Flamingo, which ranges 1,900 miles under GPS and inertial guidance while hauling a massive 2,200-pound warhead.

And it’s possible Ukrainian firm Fire Point has already built nearly 500 of the missiles. An Associated Press video from an ostensible Fire Point facility depicts two Flamingos with the serial numbers 479 and 480.

It’s possible the serials don’t reflect the actual production total. It’s equally possible they do. Fire Point spokesperson Iryna Terekh told the A.P. Fire Point is already building one Flamingo every day—and aims to ramp up production to seven a day by October ahead of full-rate production in January.

That’s … a lot of missile. Especially given the enormous size, apparent capability and possible price of the Flamingo. An American Tomahawk cruise missile weighs a fifth what a Flamingo weighs yet costs $2.4-million. To be fair, a Flamingo may lack some of the Tomahawk’s more sophisticated features.

Still, it wouldn’t be shocking if a Flamingo costs a million dollars. The price will come down a lot if Fire Point can secure the financing to scale up production. But even low-rate initial production of 210 missiles a month could easily cost $100 million. That’s an annual cost of more than a billion dollars.