Ukraine unveils new Neptune anti-ship cruise missile
Ukrainian Foreign Trade Enterprise SpetsTechnoExport presented its Neptune anti-ship cruise missile during International Defense Exhibition and Conference 2019 and revealed the weapon’s characteristics.
The company claims that the export version of the missile is capable of hitting targets 280 kilometers away. It can sink surface vessels with a displacement of up to five thousand tons. Each missile weighs 670 kilograms, including a 145-kilogram high-explosive fragmentation warhead.
The missile system includes four rockets, a launcher and a ground mobile platform mounted on the KrAZ-7634 truck. Three people are required to maintain the system. A typical battery consists of control and auxiliary equipment, four missiles and two transport vehicles.
The IDEX 2019 weapons exhibition took place from February 17 to 21 in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
The National Interest wrote in February that the first Ukrainian anti-ship cruise missile, Neptune “gives a clear picture of the progress and current problems” of Ukraine.
In January, the General Director of the JSC Tactical Missiles Corporation (KTRV), Boris Obnosov said that Ukraine’s industry “has repeatedly proved its worth and cannot be disregarded.”
In August 2018, Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine Oleksandr Turchynov commented on the cruise missile tests, stating that the weapon was “capable of providing a reliable defense of the Black Sea and the Azov coast, striking hostile boats at a distance of up to 300 kilometers.”
Ukraine first tested the Neptune in January 2018.