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Ukraine Needs to Strike Twelve Key Factories With Tomahawks to Paralyze Missile Production in russia

Ukraine Needs to Strike Twelve Key Factories With Tomahawks to Paralyze Missile Production in russia
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In order to achieve strategic objectives, one must possess tools of strategic-level power and attack range

The topic and conclusions are based upon two recent publications. The first is about Ukraine's request for Tomahawk cruise missiles submitted to the USA as part of President Zelenskyi's "Victory Plan." The missiles, The New York Times explains, will enable strikes deep into the territory of russia.

The second is the analysis by the U.S.-based Jamestown Foundation that spotlights twelve key factories for the russian missile industry located at a distance of 800 to 2,400 kilometers from Ukraine's state border. The experts stress that striking them requires appropriate long-range capabilities.

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The Typhon fire unit, a land-based system for launching Tomahawk missiles / Defense Express / Ukraine Needs to Strike Twelve Key Factories With Tomahawks to Paralyze Missile Production in russia
The Typhon fire unit, a land-based system for launching Tomahawk missiles / Open-source infographics

The original NYT publication mentions only the very fact that Ukraine has requested Tomahawk as a weapon several times the attack range of the ATACMS, the farthest-reaching system Ukraine has gotten from its Western partners so far.

Though what exactly is meant under a request for Tomahawks in this context, Defense Express assumes to be its land-based version, labeled Typhon in the U.S. Army.

Tomahawk test launch from a ground-based launcher / Defense Express / Ukraine Needs to Strike Twelve Key Factories With Tomahawks to Paralyze Missile Production in russia
Tomahawk test launch from a ground-based launcher / Open-source illustrative photo

On the one hand, the U.S. Army itself currently has only two Typhon batteries comprising four launchers each, which makes giving away an entire battery unlikely. On the other hand, the Typhon launcher itself is actually based on an improvised solution — on the universal launch cell Mark 41, the standard launcher for surface ships of the U.S. Navy, just mounted on a wheeled chassis. So, there is room for non-standard solutions here, similar to the FrankenSAM air defense system.

As for the 12 key russian missile-making plants, the authors from the Jamestown Foundation summarized the data in the following table.

Jamestown Foundation / Defense Express / Ukraine Needs to Strike Twelve Key Factories With Tomahawks to Paralyze Missile Production in russia
Info credit: Jamestown Foundation

Briefly: MKB Raduga is a facility where the final assembly of Kh-101 cruise missiles takes place; NPO Mashinostroyeniya produces P-800 and Zircon missiles; Votkinskiy Zavod produces 9M723 ballistic missiles for Iskander-M tactical missile system, also made missiles for Tochka-U systems in Soviet times; and NPK KB Mashinostroyeniya makes ballistic missiles for Iskander systems, too.

However, Defense Express notes, long-range kamikaze UAVs will not be enough to defeat these factories. Such a task must be handled by more powerful weapons, and the Tomahawk is ideal here not only in terms of required range but firepower as well.

The analysts from Jamestown Foundation gave a bit of casual advice that Ukraine should just create its own intermediate-range ballistic missile on liquid fuel, as if the development of such weapons can be done in a few months, although in fact, it takes at least several years under perfectly favorable circumstances. The ongoing war against an enemy unrestricted in range of strikes on your territory is not exactly the definition of the best working environment.

For reference, it took russians a whole 18 years to make Iskander, from the beginning of the project to the acceptance into service.

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