During the 29th edition of Eurosatory 2026, the international defense industry trade show organized by Coges Events and taking place June 15-19 of this year in Paris-Nord Villepinte near Paris, Ukrainian company Fire Point presented the FP-5 Flamingo cruise missile, which has seen use in combat operations.
Photos: Grzegorz Sobczak, MILMAG
First publicly unveiled on August 17, 2025, the missile was designed by Milanion Group Ltd, a private company registered in the United Kingdom, and is serially produced by Ukrainian company Fire Point of Kyiv. The Armed Forces of Ukraine use the system, described by the manufacturer as a hybrid between a combat drone and a cruise missile, to strike strategic targets deep in Russian rear areas.
Milanion Group Ltd had previously exhibited a scale model of the missile, first shown at the International Defence Exhibition and Conference IDEX 2025 in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, in February of last year.
The missile features fixed wings with an engine mounted in the upper fuselage. It measures 12-14 m in length with a 7 m wingspan, has a launch weight of 6,000 kg, of which 1,150 kg is the warhead, and a declared maximum range of 3,000 km, though this has not yet been confirmed in combat; the greatest distance covered in strikes against targets in Russia to date has exceeded 1,500 km.
Cruise propulsion is provided by an Ivchenko-Progress AL-25TL turbofan engine, which delivers a flight altitude range of 20 m to 10,000 m, a maximum flight time of four hours, a cruising speed of 650-700 km/h, and a maximum speed of 950 km/h. Preparation for launch from a ground platform with solid-fuel rocket booster assistance takes 20 minutes. The guidance system consists of a jamming-resistant GPS GNSS/GLONASS unit combined with inertial navigation. Stated accuracy is 14 m CEP.
Ukraine had ambitious production plans to scale from an initial 30 to 210 missiles per month, with Danish assistance (a solid-fuel booster production facility FPRT in Vojens, Jutland, announced on September 3 of last year), but on February 15 of this year President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky acknowledged that the existing production line had been destroyed in a Russian strike. Current production capabilities are classified for obvious reasons.
Ukraine has used Flamingo missiles in combat in 9 attacks, during which at least 23 missiles were launched, though estimates may be understated. The most recent attack using them took place on June 9 of this year, striking the VNIIR-Progress plant in Cheboksary.
Currently, Fire Point produces the FP-1 long-range strike drone series (1,600 km range), the medium-range FP-2 (200 km range), and has recently announced the development of ballistic missiles: the tactical FP-7 with a range of 200 km and the operational FP-9 with a range of 855 km, as well as the development of the FP-7.x interceptor missile as part of the pan-European Freya anti-missile defense system project.