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Received yesterday — 12 June 2026 ⏭

Germany’s Diehl in talks to produce Ukraine’s Flamingo cruise missile on German soil

✇Euromaidan Press
By: Yuri Zoria
12 June 2026 at 14:07

germany's diehl talks produce ukraine's flamingo cruise missile german soil · post fire point's missiles production facility ракета фламінго компанії point джерело єфрем лукацький maker defence negotiating manufacture germany financial

Germany's missile maker Diehl Defence is negotiating to manufacture Ukraine's Flamingo cruise missile in Germany, the Financial Times reported. Talks with the Ukrainian developer Fire Point are planned for the coming weeks, as European states hunt for weapons able to reach deep into Russia.

Four years of full-scale war have turned Ukraine's defense industry from an aid recipient into a source of battle-tested designs, with Kyiv's manufacturers now fielding interceptor drones and advancing a domestic ballistic missile program that European militaries increasingly want to tap. German Flamingo production would hand Europe a ground-launched deep-strike weapon independent of Washington's political swings, while giving Fire Point the orders and financing to scale output.

"This could really happen"

Diehl chief executive Helmut Rauch briefed journalists during the ILA Berlin Air Show.

"We are in discussions about how we could work together," he said. "I think this could really happen. In the next few weeks, we have several meetings regarding this and then we will see." 

For a new product, he added, it "makes a lot of sense to have it also in Germany or other countries," and Diehl is "optimistic and positive" about cooperation. The Ukrainian outlet Militarnyi noted that joint output of the FP-5 Flamingo in Europe could become the largest example of NATO countries adopting Ukrainian defense know-how.

IRIS
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German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, visiting Kyiv last month, said the "technological leaps here in Ukraine are remarkable." Joint ventures are being explored for long-range drones, air defenses, and electronic warfare, he said.

The initiative comes as Berlin scrambles to replace US Tomahawk missiles that were due in Germany this year alongside an American battalion. US President Donald Trump scrapped that Biden-era decision amid friction with Chancellor Friedrich Merz around the war in Iran. 

Diehl builds the Iris-T air-defense system, a mainstay of Ukraine's protection against Russian missile attacks. The firm inked a technology deal with Fire Point in April without disclosing details.

Render of the Pulse P19 multi-purpose optionally piloted aircraft. Source: Quantum Systems
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German company that already supplies Ukraine with drones has unveiled Shahed-hunter aircraft with four weapons categories on single airframe

Twice the Tomahawk's range, 200 missiles a month

The ground-launched Flamingo claims over 3,000 km of reach — roughly double the Tomahawk's. The missile has so far played a limited part in Ukraine's long-range campaign, and some reports have questioned its effectiveness. At least two Flamingos, though, struck a military plant in the Russian city of Cheboksary on 10 June, about 900 km from the Ukrainian border — the longest successful known Flamingo strike so far.

Fire Point co-founder and chief designer Denys Shtilierman told the Financial Times in May that the company turns out about 200 Flamingos a month with capacity to spare. 

"We just need orders and money," he said, admitting an engine bottleneck he expected to resolve soon.

So far, however, publicly documented Flamingo attacks remain limited to a handful of strikes, each involving only a small number of missiles.
Received — 11 June 2026 ⏭

German company that already supplies Ukraine with drones has unveiled Shahed-hunter aircraft with four weapons categories on single airframe

✇Euromaidan Press
By: Olena Mukhina
11 June 2026 at 18:41

Render of the Pulse P19 multi-purpose optionally piloted aircraft. Source: Quantum Systems

Germany's Quantum Systems has unveiled the Pulse P19, an optionally-piloted aircraft designed to hunt drones and repel massed drone attacks, per Defense Express. The technology company already supplies Vector reconnaissance drones to Ukraine. 

The Pulse P19's primary mission profile, which is hunting drones and repelling massed drone attacks, addresses exactly the Russian Shahed threat that Ukraine has been responding to.

Ukraine is now intercepting 95% of incoming Russian Shaheds, using a layered defense system that includes Patriot, NASAMS, IRIS-T, naval-platform interceptors, helicopter-based interceptors, Ukrainian-made Bullet interceptors, and autonomous drone-on-drone systems.

The Pulse P19 would add a dedicated, optionally piloted drone-hunter platform to this layered defense,  though the aircraft is currently in early design stages, with only renders released.

What does Pulse P19 carry, and how would it hunt? 

For air-target detection and tracking, the Pulse P19 can be equipped with an active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar and an electro-optical targeting station.

The aircraft's armament options are unusually broad. The Pulse P19 is designed to carry interceptor drones, loitering munitions, missiles with semi-active laser homing heads (APKWS class), pod-mounted machine guns, and additional weapons that may be developed in the future.

The interceptor drones referenced in the Quantum Systems presentation are likely the same systems being integrated onto the Airbus U145 helicopter, which Quantum Systems also unveiled at ILA Berlin 2026 with anti-drone armament.

Specifications: small, fast, with significant payload

The Pulse P19 has a maximum speed of 556 km/h and a service ceiling of 7,620 meters. The aircraft's empty weight is approximately 1,700 kg, while it can carry up to 2,500 kg of payload and armament.

The payload-to-empty-weight ratio is unusually high. This indicates the design is built around the requirement to carry multiple weapons systems simultaneously. The 556 km/h maximum speed places the Pulse P19 in the slow-to-mid-tier of fixed-wing combat aircraft, but adequate for the Shahed-pursuit mission, given that Shahed-136 drones typically cruise at 180 km/h.

Development status: renders only, timeline undisclosed

Quantum Systems has presented only renders of the Pulse P19. The project's development stage has not been disclosed. The aircraft is likely still in early design phases. No first-flight timeline has been published.

The aircraft's specifications and weapons configuration represent design intent rather than current operational capability. Ukrainian defense procurement officials would likely engage with Quantum Systems on the Pulse P19 trajectory once the aircraft reaches the flight-test stage, given Quantum Systems' established relationship with Ukraine and the operational fit between the Pulse P19's mission profile and Ukraine's defensive needs.

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