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Shortly after Russia seized Ukraine’s Crimea in 2014, a Ukrainian defense firm used an arms show in Kyiv to unveil its latest project: an anti-ship cruise missile called the Neptune.
The new rocket attracted little attention at the time. But now it’s taking center stage after a US defense official said Ukrainian forces used Neptune missiles to hit and sink Russia’s flagship, the Moskva, in the Black Sea.
Wednesday’s strike provided a major boost for Ukraine — not only for its war effort but also for its domestic arms industry, even as it relies on guns donated by Western allies.
“If the Ukrainians managed to sink this ship or damage it with their own Neptun missiles, it will be primarily a point of pride and a useful military skill, as they will be able to contain the Russian fleet hold,” said Mark Cancian, senior advisor for the international security program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Foreign-made weapons have poured into Ukraine since Russia invaded on February 24. Among them are anti-tank weapons made in the United States, small arms made in Europe, and even anti-aircraft systems developed in Russia.
But Ukraine is a major arms exporter in its own right, with a legacy of missile and rocket building dating deep into the Soviet era.
Russia was once a major export market for these weapons: between 2016 and 2020, one in five Ukrainian arms exports went to Ukraine’s larger neighbor, according to records from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
But in recent years, Ukrainian weapons have also been developed to fight against Russian forces.
Ukraine’s military said its forces fired Neptun anti-ship missiles at the Moscow River, damaging it and sinking it on Thursday. A senior US defense official said Friday that two Neptune missiles hit the ship.
Moscow said only that a fire on board detonated ammunition stores, prompting the crew to be evacuated. The ship later sank due to bad weather while being towed into port, Russia said.
On Friday, Russia’s Defense Ministry said it hit the Vizar factory on the outskirts of the Ukrainian capital. Ukraine’s state-owned arms manufacturer Ukroboronprom said in a statement on its website that the Vizar factory was involved in the production of both Neptun missiles and Alder precision-guided missiles.
Some Ukrainians considered the sinking of the Moskva a key moment for the domestic armaments industry.
“For the first time a warship was destroyed by an anti-ship missile entirely made in Ukraine,” wrote Daria Kaleniuk, executive director of the Anti-Corruption Action Center in Ukraine, on Twitter.
Kaleniuk, a prominent social media activist, said the strike’s reported success showed Ukraine’s ability to deal with more technologically advanced weapons supplied by NATO countries.
The Neptune was under development prior to Russia’s annexation of Crimea, but its capture helped boost production of the missile. The peninsula is home to Ukraine’s main naval base and the Soviet-era coastal defense systems that once protected the country from attacks along the Black Sea.
The R-360 Neptune itself is based on an old Soviet cruise missile called the kH-35, which was produced in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv. The company that developed Neptun, Luch Design Bureau, was founded in 1965 and has a long history of designing Soviet missiles.
If Neptune missiles were fired at the Moscow River, it would be the first time the weapon would be used in practice, military experts say. The incident also suggests that the cruise missiles, which have a reported range of about 200 miles, can evade missile defense systems like those aboard the Russian ship.
The ship was equipped with long-range radar and an S-300 air defense system designed to provide protection not only for itself but also for the rest of the Russian fleet. Reports from Ukrainian officials suggest that an aerial drone was used to distract defense systems during the attack.
Ukrainian officials said last year that four countries have expressed interest in importing Neptun missile systems for their own use, with Indonesia potentially among those able to receive the first shipment.
But there are also concerns that Ukraine does not have enough weapons at home.
In an interview last year, Luch Design Bureau director Oleg Korostelov said his company could only deliver up to 800 of the roughly 2,000 missiles requested by the Ukrainian military “due to a lack of funding.”
“Unfortunately, our security level is low,” he said when asked if Ukraine was ready to defend itself against a full-scale invasion.