Ukraine has used a domestically built tactical ballistic missile in combat for the first time, President Volodymyr Zelensky has said, naming the weapon as the FP-7 and signalling that the next task is building it in quantity, according to the president in a post published on Thursday.
Writing on X, Mr Zelensky said: “Ukrainian tactical ballistic missile. FP-7. First combat use. Thank you for the result. Next up: production. Glory to Ukraine!”
No target was given, and Kyiv has declined to say what the missile struck. The brevity of the announcement is itself the point, since a first combat firing is a political statement about Ukrainian industry as much as a military event.
Ukrainian tactical ballistic missile. FP-7. First combat use. Thank you for the result. Next up: production. Glory to Ukraine! pic.twitter.com/IxdjVg51c1
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) October 1, 2026
The FP-7 is made by Fire Point, the Ukrainian company set up in 2022 that has become one of the more visible names in the country’s wartime weapons industry, and which also produces the FP-1 one-way attack drone and the FP-5 Flamingo cruise missile. The missile is launched from a standard truck trailer rather than a purpose-built transporter erector launcher, an approach that keeps cost down and makes the launch vehicle harder to distinguish from ordinary traffic.
Published figures for the missile vary between sources and none of them have been independently verified. The announced range has been given as between 200 and 300 kilometres, with a warhead variously described as 150 or 200 kilograms, a circular error probable of around 14 metres and a terminal velocity of 1,200 to 1,500 metres a second. Analysts tracking the programme have assessed that the airframe derives from the Soviet 48N6 interceptor used by the S-400 system, rebuilt with composite materials and modern electronics, and the manufacturer has claimed that the resulting speed gives it a better chance of getting through air defences than the Russian Iskander.
Roughly seven months separated the first reported test from this firing, which is fast by any peacetime standard and reflects how much Ukrainian procurement has compressed since 2022.
Will be interesting to hear much more about the progress of this system and the sort of targets it can take out, the more options the better especially in the ballistic realm.