Ukraine’s 2-Ton Strike Missiles Are Back In Action

When the Soviet army left Ukraine in 1991, it left behind as many as 500 Tochka conventional ballistic missiles. Thirty-one years later, on the eve of Russia’s wider war on Ukraine, the Ukrainian army’s Tochka-U inventory was down to 90 active missiles.

The decline made sense. The two-ton, 70-mile-range rocket with its 1,000-pound warhead and inertial guidance has a single-stage, solid-fuel engine. Solid rocket fuels don’t last forever.

Incredibly, the Ukrainian army’s 19th Missile Brigade, which also operates U.S.-made High-Mobility Artillery Rocket System launchers, continues to lob the crude but powerful Tochka-Us at Russian staging areas and supply lines just past the front line.

Official photos and videos that circulated in January and March confirmed that the 19th Missile Brigade still has Tochka-Us. Indeed, the missiles appear to be fresh from the factory.

But the Tochka-U factory was in Russia, and it’s unlikely Ukraine has established a new production line for brand-new missiles. After all, Kyiv’s priority is to complete development of a new and improved ballistic missile, the Hrim-2.

So where did the replacement Tochka-Us come from?

“There is speculation that the AFU”—the armed forces of Ukraine—“were able to restore missiles that were previously considered beyond repair,” explained the pro-Ukraine Conflict Intelligence Team. That probably meant disassembling, refueling and rebuilding decades-old missiles that were toxic, explosive and extremely unsafe to handle.

The 19th Missile Brigade’s recent resupply marks at least the second time the brigade has received a batch of refurbished Tochka-Us. The brigade fired off its pre-war consignment of around 90 missiles in the first year of Russia’s wider war on Ukraine between early 2022 and early 2023. For the next six months, the wheeled Tochka-U launchers and their crews were idle.

In November 2023, the launchers and crews sprung back into action, lobbing Tochka-Us at targets in Belgorod Oblast in western Russia and Donetsk Oblast in eastern Ukraine. Soon, however, the missiles ran out again. The launchers and crews idled once more, awaiting fresh missiles. They arrived no later than January.

Rocket labor

It’s possible to guess who’s doing the Tochka-U rebuilds. Ukraine has long possessed one of the biggest rocket industries in Europe. The sprawling Yuzhmash—a.k.a., Pivdenmash—complex in Dnipro, in southern Ukraine, produces a wide array of rockets and rocket-parts for space launches and military use.

Russian firm KBM was the lead manufacturer of Tochka-Us during the type’s main production run between the 1970s and 1990s. But Yuzhmash had no problem building its own Tochka-U parts following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

It’s not for no reason the Ukrainian government tapped Yuzhmash to build the Hrim-2. Likewise, it’s not for no reason Russian forces repeatedly have targeted Yuzhmash. The Kremlin claimed one April 2023 strike “destroyed” a Tochka-U workshop in Dnipro. On Nov. 21, the Russians bombarded Dnipro with an experimental Oreshnik ballistic missile packing several independent reentry vehicles.

It’s apparent the Yuzhmash complex remains active, however. It has rebuilt or dispersed targeted facilities, or both. As far back as the summer of 2023, the Ukrainian defense ministry claimed the Hrim-2 was ready for initial production, presumably in Dnipro.

The Tochka-U is not a sophisticated missile. If Yuzhmash can produce heavy engines for high-stakes space-launches, there’s no reason it can’t recondition the much smaller, simpler Tochka-U. And since the Soviets left hundreds of Tochka-Us in Ukraine, there should be plenty of old rocket bodies lying around that Yuzhmash can work with.

The pace of work is obviously slow, however. That’s why the 19th Missile Brigade’s Tochka-U batteries wage war the way they do: powerfully—but sporadically.