Fire Point, a leading Ukrainian defense company, produces about 100 "Flamingo" long-range cruise missiles and hundreds of drones every month - a pace capable of sustaining a prolonged campaign of deep strikes against targets hundreds of miles inside Russian territory.
This was reported by Dengi.ua , citing The Guardian.
How Many Missiles and Drones Does Fire Point Produce?
Fire Point also produces the FP-1 and FP-2 fixed-wing drones at a rate of “hundreds a day,” according to the company’s CEO, Iryna Terekh. Full-scale production is resuming after a pause caused by a delay in the approval of a €90 billion EU loan package for Ukraine.
The startup’s growth since its founding in 2022 demonstrates the rapid maturation of Ukraine’s domestic defense industry, which has finally gained the long-range capabilities that the West had previously denied it throughout the conflict.
According to Terekh, she is not aware of a single deep-strike attack in the past few months that did not involve the company’s products. Missile and drone attacks using Fire Point munitions are occurring at a daily rate of “an average of 5 to 15.”
How Much Does a “Flamingo” Missile Cost, and How Far Does It Fly?
“Flamingo” missiles, capable of carrying 1,150 kg of explosives - enough to penetrate concrete walls - were used in a strike on a Russian military components factory in Cheboksary in June - more than 600 miles from Kharkiv in northeastern Ukraine.
According to Terekh, the actual flight range was about 1,800 km (1,118 miles) due to the complexity of the trajectory - this is one of the longest recorded flights in the history of cruise missile missions. Each “Flamingo” missile costs just under $600,000, which is cheaper than the American “Tomahawk,” priced at approximately $3.5 million.
How FP-1 Drones Are Affecting Oil Production in Russia
Lighter FP-1 drones, with a range exceeding 1,000 miles, are being used to strike less-protected Russian oil refineries as part of a campaign that has already reduced output by 20% and led to long lines at gas stations. According to Terekh, these drones cost between $55,000 and $75,000.
How Many Plants and Employees Does Fire Point Have?
Fire Point currently operates 83 plants within Ukraine, as well as one more in Denmark, with a workforce of 6,000 employees - up from 3,500 at the end of last year, according to Terekh. Journalists from The Guardian visited one of the production sites last December, where dozens of workers were assembling structures made of plywood, plastic, and carbon fiber into finished drones.
Ben Hodges, a former general who commanded the U.S. Army in Europe, noted that the results we are seeing now stem from several years of effort on the part of Ukraine. According to him, Ukrainian weapons are capable not only of striking targets deep inside Russia with high precision and evading Russian air defense systems, but also of carrying a warhead large enough to achieve the desired effect.
How Many Missiles Does Russia Fire at Ukraine Each Month?
The result has been an evolution in the protracted war: Ukraine is closing the gap with Russia’s ability to carry out lethal long-range attacks. According to Ukrainian estimates, Russia produces up to 70 X-101 air-launched cruise missiles, 25 Kalibr sea-launched cruise missiles, and another 60 Iskander-M ballistic missiles each month.
What Is Known About Ukraine’s First Ballistic Missiles
Fire Point is also developing Ukraine’s first ballistic missiles, and Terekh hopes to conduct the first launch by the end of the year.
Meanwhile, the short-range FP-7 variant will form the basis of a separate Freya initiative - an international project aimed at creating an alternative air defense system to the American Patriot, in which Ukraine and nine other European countries are participating. Fire Point will manufacture launchers and interceptors with a target cost of $1 million per interceptor.
According to Terekh, the company “loves the Patriot,” but global production falls far short of current demand. Only Patriot systems are capable of stopping Russian ballistic missiles targeting Kyiv and other cities, but Ukraine’s stockpiles have been depleted.
She noted that total global production of PAC-3 missiles is approximately 600-700 missiles per year - exactly the number of Patriot missiles consumed in the Middle East in two weeks. The hope now is that the technology can be tested for the first time by July of next year.
Who Owns Fire Point
Fire Point is primarily owned by its founder, businessman Denis Shtilerman. Although Shtilerman was in talks to sell a stake to Timur Mindich - a friend and former business partner of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy who was accused last year of organizing a corruption scheme in the energy sector - the founder maintains that no deal took place.
Terekh, who studied architecture before joining Fire Point in the summer of 2023, when the company had 18 employees, noted that the company is an example of how the Russian invasion urgently forced Ukraine - once the heart of Soviet industry - to modernize and rebuild.