>>518520533
>V2 but worst?
>>518522556
>100m altitude
>600kmh
>Yeah this thing is a pretty obsolete design,
It's not that horrible, but it is also in many ways worse than a V1. (As a sidenote flight altitude typically is officially ~50 meters. Why it was a 100 during intercept can have many reasons, one being that it climbed over terrain)
From the manufacturing side, they use a +$40K turbofan engine that was up to recently made in the Motor Sich plant that got fucked instead of a pulse jet that would offer similar performance at a fraction of the cost.
A pulse jet could also be mass produced even in Ukraine (aka, a V1 based design could be actually mass produced and cheap!).
If you want a fairly low performance missile to saturate the enemy defences, then cost and production rates are key.
The Flamingo is now limited in potential quantities while costing an eye watering $500K!
Half a million for a missile that is comparable to a larger V1 (with GPS upgrade) in terms of performance?
At this price point it is better to invest in something more capable like a Storm Shadow for $2.5 million.
The Flamingo is overpriced by at least 5x and due to the engine issues, production capability is also severely bottlenecked.
I still think the missile itself is within acceptable specs for a low cost, mass produced system.
The three main problems are that it is not low cost, not mass produced and that Russia has the worlds most capable air defences.
In other words, it was stillborn as anyone with room temp IQ and pend & paper would have known.
