The new Ukrainian FP-9 missile! More powerful than ATACMS and reaching Moscow

The Ukrainian defense company Fire Point is preparing the FP-7 and FP-9 ballistic missiles for commissioning. The new developments are significantly cheaper than Western analogues, and their range allows them to hit strategic targets deep in the rear of Russia, writes RBC-Ukraine, referring to an interview with the company's co-founders Irina Terek and Denis Shtilerman for Deutsche Welle.

Characteristics of Fire Point missiles: an alternative to ATACMS

According to the developers, the FP-7 missile is a budget analogue of the American ATACMS system. It has a range of up to 300 km and is designed for high-precision strikes at short distances.

The more powerful modification - FP-9 - is capable of hitting targets at a distance of 800-850 km and carries a payload weighing 800 kg.

“800 kilometers - this is Moscow, this is St. Petersburg“, emphasizes Shtilerman.

For his part, Terek notes that unlike unmanned aerial vehicles or cruise missiles, ballistic missiles have a significantly greater chance of penetrating the three contours of air defense around the Russian capital.

"It will be much easier to hit Moscow with ballistic missiles. It should be understood that neither cruise missiles nor drones in any large percentage, which can cause significant damage to Moscow or its infrastructure, will reach their target. That is why the only hope is ballistic missiles with a high speed of hitting the target. More than 1200 meters per second," she says.

When will the FP-9 be on the front

Currently, the missiles are undergoing final tests. However, it is expected that their codification and official introduction into service will take place as early as February of this year.

The speed of development is explained by the lack of bureaucracy and the simplification of procedures for the defense sector of Ukraine (we are talking, in particular, about Decree No. 256 of March 2022). For comparison: similar programs in France or Russia lasted more than 15 years.

"Even countries with great experience and a powerful missile program have spent dozens of years to create ballistic missiles. France, for example, with its M51 ballistic missile, spent 15 years. S-400 - the Russian complex has also been developed for 15 years,“ notes Shtilerman.

Anti-missile shield for Europe

The priority of Fire Point for the current year is the development of ballistic weapons, and in the perspective of two to three years - the construction of an anti-missile shield for the whole of Europe.

This defense system will operate on the basis of an open architecture, which will ensure complete independence of the software from specific manufacturers or countries.

One of the key tasks of the project is the radical reduction of the cost of air defense. Currently, shooting down one Russian "Iskander" missile costs about $6 million, but Fire Point is striving to reduce this price to $1-1.5 million.

This result is planned to be achieved through the use of the FP-7 missile. It is a composite and significantly cheaper version of the analogues of the S-400 system, has simplified control and is protected from any remote interference or shutdown.