Although at the moment it seems to be on the table closer than ever the option of a truce in Ukraine, the troops of the Ukrainian army continue to war on the battlefield to the point of having developed – and used – a new long -range cruise missile, baptized as the ‘Long Neptune’.
This was explained by the Forbes military analyst, David Ax, on March 15. This new missile is an expanded version of the neptune -cruise cruise missile of Ukraine, which measures 5 meters in length.
The original Neptune Missile was developed by the Ukrainian defense company Luch Design Bureau, which went to the fore in 2022 when it managed to sink the flagship of the Russian Black Sea fleet, the Moskva.
On the other hand, Ax also referred to the president of Ukraine, Volodomir Zelenski, who on March 15 affirmed that the missile had achieved “significant results” after receiving reports on the program.
The Ukranian president said that “the new Ukrainian missile impacted precisely and has a range of 1,000 km.” In addition, Ax revealed that he believes that the first successful deployment of Long Neptune occurred on March 14, when Ukraine carried out an attack against an oil refinery in Tuapse (Russia), just under 500 km from the front.
On the other hand, the military expert said that this missile can become a fundamental weapon for Ukraine, since it reduces the external dependence of kyiv by the US and Europe.
How is the Long Neptune? Its first version, the Neptune, is a cruise missile that entered the Ukrainian Navy in 2021 although it was presented in 2015 in kyiv, at the exhibition of weapons and security. It weighs about 870 kg and measures 5.05 meters long, and was designed to attack ships of up to 9,000 tons, with an effective range of 200 km.
An important factor is that it can attack both naval and terrestrial objectives and is equipped with a MS400 Sich Motor Turbofán motor and advanced guide systems. The current version is a leap of quality and value for the missile, since it is an improved version for long -range attacks against terrestrial objectives in Russia.
