Ukraine’s military resumes firing of former Soviet-designed pillbox ballistic missiles for the first time in six months | Forbes JAPAN Official Site (Forbes Japan)

When the Soviet Union withdrew from Ukraine in 1991 following the collapse of the Soviet Union, 500 pillbox ballistic missiles were left behind. Thirty-one years later, just before Russia invaded Ukraine, the Ukrainian military’s stockpile of usable pillboxes had dwindled to 90.

This is not surprising. The pillbox, which weighs 2 tons and has a maximum range of 120 km and has a warhead of approximately 500 kg and inertial guidance, is equipped with a single-stage solid fuel engine. Solid rocket fuel doesn’t last long.

After a year of intense fighting, the Ukrainian army used up most of its available pillboxes. By this summer, evidence of pillbox launches by the 19th Missile Brigade, the only unit in the Ukrainian military equipped with pillboxes, had become rare.

Six months later,Pillboxes are back on the battlefield. In mid-November, a photo surfaced online showing the remains of a Ukrainian military pillbox found in Russia’s western Belgorod region. It shows an attempted rocket attack on a military target located several kilometers away on the Russian side of the border. Two days earlier, another pillbox attack reportedly targeted Russian troops in the Russian-occupied Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine.

No wonder the Ukrainian military has resumed firing pillboxes. Ukraine has long had one of the largest rocket industries in Europe. The state-run company Yuzhmash has a vast complex in the southern Dnipro region that produces a variety of rockets and rocket parts for the space industry and military.

From the 1970s to the 1990s, when pillboxes were at their peak, Russia’s Mechanical Design Bureau (KBM) was responsible for producing pillboxes. However, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Yuzhmash had no problem producing pillbox parts on its own.

It’s not without reason that the Ukrainian government commissioned Yuzhmash to manufacture the Flim 2, a modern version of the pillbox. Similarly, there is a reason why Russian forces have repeatedly targeted Yuzhmash. Russia claims it “destroyed” a pillbox production factory in Dnipro in the April attack.

But it is clear that the Yuzhmash complex is operational. Yuzhmash either rebuilt or dispersed facilities targeted by Russian forces, or both. Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense claimed in June that the Flim 2 was ready for production. The location is probably Dnipro.

A pillbox is not a sophisticated missile. If Yujumash can produce large engines for rockets that launch into space, there’s no reason why it can’t repair or even build a much smaller, simpler pillbox from scratch.

The former Soviet military left behind hundreds of pillboxes in Ukraine, so there would have been plenty of old rocket casings lying around that Yuzhmash could use.

It’s obvious why Ukraine would go to the trouble of replenishing its stock of pillboxes. The Ukrainian military’s deep-strike capabilities are steadily expanding, including French and British air-launched cruise missiles, U.S. ground-launched M39 rockets, and indigenous missiles such as the Neptune cruise missile and S-200 surface-to-surface ballistic missile. Yet demand for these weapons far exceeds supply.

The more Ukrainian forces attack airfields, factories, bridges, and logistics centers located further away from the front lines, the fewer well-equipped Russian troops will have to fight on the front lines.

（forbes.com Original text）