Ukraine races to close Russia’s ballistic missile gap with homegrown FP-7 missile

Ukraine is moving closer to deploying its own ballistic missiles as Kyiv seeks to narrow its long-range strike gap with Russia and reduce its dependence on Western-supplied weapons.According to Kyiv Independent, Ukrainian defence company Fire Point’s FP-7 ballistic missile is nearing operational deployment, while its longer-range FP-9 is undergoing development and testing. According to the report, the FP-7 has a range of up to 200 km, while the FP-9 is designed to reach around 850 km.The programme comes as Russia continues to use ballistic missiles against Ukraine, putting pressure on Kyiv’s limited air-defence interceptor stocks.The Kyiv Independent reported that Ukrainian analysts see domestic ballistic missiles as a way to target Russian missile launchers, air-defence systems and other military infrastructure before they can be used against Ukrainian targets.Ukraine’s ballistic missile programmeUkraine still trails Russia significantly in ballistic missile production.