By Olha Chepil | 2024-09-27

KYIV -- Determined to arm itself, Ukraine has been developing new weapons, including a ballistic missile, drones and aerial bombs.

Ukraine's wartime ingenuity was on display last month when a video surfaced online showing the Ukrainian Su-24 bomber carrying a prototype of a gliding munition under its wing.

The Ukrainian Air Force posted the short video on Telegram in August with the description, "A bomber conducts a test flight to test a new guided aerial bomb."

This is a momentous step in the development of new weapons for Ukraine, given that Russia lobs as many as 100 glide bombs into Ukrainian territory per day, Forbes reported September 7.

Ukraine's new glide bomb is fitted with a rocket booster, pop-out wings and a GPS system, and its range is about 65km -- similar to the American-made Joint Direct Attack Munition-Extended Range (JDAM-ER) and French-made Hammer glide bombs.

If Ukraine able to start large-scale production of these bombs, it will be able to strike Russian territory as frequently as Russia strikes Ukraine with similar shells, analysts say.

"We have a huge number of Soviet bombs in warehouses," Pavlo Narozhny, a military analyst and founder of the NGO Reactive Mail, told Kontur. "Developers gave them brains and controls, upgraded them, and added precision."

"When you take into account the fact that the glide bomb is relatively cheap and can be used in large quantities, I think this is a game changer," he said.

"Thanks to systematic work in the military-defense complex, there's now a profusion of very interesting innovations in Ukraine," Narozhny said.

Palianytsia in the sky

Another Ukrainian-made weapon is the Palianytsia, which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy unveiled August 24, after a year and a half of development.

Its tactical and technical features make it both a drone and a missile at the same time. It has a solid-fuel booster and a jet engine. Although little is known about the warhead or the system, many military analysts are already lauding the weapon.

"I really like this missile because there's powerful potential for the warhead," said Konstantin Krivolap, an aviation expert and former test engineer at Ukraine's Antonov aircraft company. "It's a cylinder that's between two and two and a half meters long. There are big wings that make it very aerodynamic so it can fly far."

"We haven't seen this on other cruise missiles," he told Kontur.

What is known is that the rocket drone is launched from a ground platform and has a range of up to 700 km.

"The interesting thing is that the developers took the attributes of different systems and brought them together into a single design, a single product -- the Palianytsia," Krivolap said. "I think they can offer a very exciting new outcome."

The Palianytsia costs less than $1 million, making it cheaper than its counterparts, analysts say.

Ukraine wants to further lower its cost of production in the future, but the first order has already been placed for these new rocket drones: Lithuania will be purchasing a batch from Ukraine for €10 million.

Kyiv is taking steps to ensure it has a steady flow of weapons, Zelenskyy said.

"We are setting up underground weapons production facilities so Ukrainian soldiers can defend themselves even when supplies from our partners are delayed," he said September 6 at the Ambrosetti Forum, an international economic conference in Italy.

"We have developed our own new drones and missiles -- and we are gradually bringing this war back to Russia, so that [Russian President Vladimir] Putin will eventually feel the pressure. The pressure to seek only one thing -- peace," he said.

Ballistic missiles

Zelenskyy announced further developments August 27, saying Ukraine is producing ballistic missiles.

The news caused a sensation among many Ukrainians.

The Ukrainian army has ballistic missiles, but they are old Soviet Tochka-U systems with a range of 120 km. Ukraine also has US-made Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS), which have a range of 300 km.

However, creating a homegrown long-range ballistic missile has become a priority for the Ukrainian defense industry, according to analysts.

"Ballistic missiles are technologically more complicated to produce than cruise missiles. But the result is different too," Ivan Kirichevsky, a military analyst at Defense Express, told Kontur.

Unlike a cruise missile, in the final stage a ballistic missile attacks the target almost vertically and very fast, so an air defense system has little chance of being able to intercept it, he said.

"The Russians are genuinely afraid of those kinds of missiles," Kirichevsky said.

'Dragon drones'

Because Russia has colossal resources and heavy-duty industry, the Ukrainians have needed to be more innovative, flexible and imaginative, analysts say.

"Missile potential and drone potential are rising in Ukraine," according to Krivolap.

Ukraine is mass-producing long-range drones that are used to strike strategic Russian infrastructure more than 1,000 km away.

"Drones have traveled to the front line, and because Ukrainian entrepreneurs and charitable foundations wanted to help, people raised money for them," he said. "So now there's a diverse range of options, which means that it's possible to choose the best models."