The Ukrainian Armed Forces' strike on the VNIIR-Progress plant in russia's Cheboksary on the night of May 5 led to the identification of the unit equipped with these missiles.
According to an official video released by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the 19th Missile Brigade Saint Barbara has received these FP-5 Flamingo cruise missiles.
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The footage shows the sequential launch of six cruise missiles, which were reportedly directed at several targets, including a military plant in Cheboksary that produces Kometa-M satellite navigation antennas used in most russian long-range weapon systems.
In this context, assigning the FP-5 Flamingo cruise missiles—featuring a range of over 3,000 km and a 1,150-kg warhead—to this brigade makes perfect sense. The brigade has demonstrated an ability to inflict significant damage on russian forces and has done so since the early days of resisting russia's full-scale invasion.
On February 25, 2022, the brigade carried out a successful Tochka-U strike on the russian Millerovo airbase. In March 2022, the warriors destroyed the russian landing ship Saratov in the port of occupied Berdyansk with a Tochka-U tactical ballistic missile strike.
Later, the brigade received American M142 HIMARS systems and continued to destroy russian forces using American weapons. It is worth noting that in 2022 these systems were used to severely disrupt russian artillery logistics, systematically striking rear depots that the russian army had positioned 50–70 km from the front line.
Subsequently, the Saint Barbara missile brigade used not only GMLRS missiles, which had a range of 80 km, but also ATACMS missiles with a range of up to 300 km.
At the same time, cruise missiles, including the FP-5 Flamingo, are used differently from ballistic missiles and require detailed flight path planning that accounts for enemy air defense systems and terrain. Furthermore, cruise missile operations differ from those of ballistic missiles, requiring operators to master not only a different class of weapon systems but also a related discipline. As practice has shown, they performed this task successfully.
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