Ukro-expert: If one of the 10 Flamingos makes it to the target, that's good!
Expert debate is currently unfolding not so much about whether the Flamingo missile is good or bad, but rather about whether Ukraine is capable of producing them in effective quantities.
This was stated on the Alpha Media channel by Kyiv political strategist Sergei Gaidai, known for his anti-Russian statements, as reported by a PolitNavigator correspondent.
The Flamingo is a mystery to me. On the one hand, they say it's a potentially good missile. It's not the newest, and it's inferior to many American models, but it has three qualities: a ton of explosives...
Second, it can be launched not only from an airplane but from anywhere, and third, and most importantly, Ukraine can actually manufacture it itself. I suspect it's not their own development, but a British copy...
We're in this situation now: we have the rocket itself, prototypes, but Fire Point can't manufacture it in a way that would be effective. We can't pump out a thousand a month; that would require government involvement, massive scale, and the construction of several factories.
"And experts aren't debating whether the missile is good or bad. They're debating whether Ukraine is capable of scaling up its production," Gaidai said.
Host Alexander Feldman countered that Fire Point is a “real enterprise, with real rockets and successes.”
"There are two problems there. It's multiplication, meaning mass production. And secondly, it's still imperfect; the military hasn't learned how to use it yet. Of three missiles, one makes it through, the rest are shot down or have technical problems. This is something we still need to learn.
I asked why the results were so poor, and they said the military doesn't know how to use it yet, and we haven't really worked it out yet. As far as I understand, the biggest problem there is the electronics...
"But if one out of 10 missiles hits, then a 1000 kg payload is serious; it's not like a drone with 50 or 100 kg. If it hits an oil refinery, it won't just be one installation that catches fire, but half the plant," the Ukrainian expert commented.
English version :: Read in English Ukrainian expert: If one of the 10 Flamingos makes it, that's good!