09/08/2026
Ukraine first showed the Koral anti-aircraft missile system launcher during the MSPO defense exhibition in Poland. This is a self-propelled vehicle on the chassis of a Czech Tatra truck, from which a Ukrainian missile is to be launched to intercept air and ballistic targets.
This is reported by Militarny. The presented sample allows you to see what the ground platform of this complex looks like.
What is known about “Coral”
The missile is being developed as a means of defeating air and ballistic targets as part of an air defense system. In exceptional cases, it is planned to be used against ground or surface radar-contrast targets.
The missile weighs 450 kg, of which 36 kg is the warhead. The guidance system combines inertial navigation, radio correction and an active radar homing head.
The length of the rocket is 4.8 m, the diameter is 230/300 mm. Its wingspan reaches 835 mm, and the rudders are 685 mm.
How the complex was developed
Research and development work on the “Coral” project began in 2016. At that time, the missile project appeared in documents as a component of a ship-based anti-aircraft missile system.
The “Coral” became widely publicized in 2021 , when the Luch Design Bureau presented a full-size mock-up of the missile at the “Weapons and Security-2021” exhibition. At that time, it was positioned as a unified modular missile , which was planned to be used as part of land and ship-based air defense systems, and potentially also as an air-to-air missile.
At the initial stage, the “Coral” had much more modest declared characteristics : a range of up to 30 km, a height of up to 10 km, a mass of about 300 kg and a warhead weighing 25 kg. The length of the missile then was 4.33 m, and the diameter was 230/260 mm.
At the same time, the designers emphasized that specific characteristics could vary depending on the customer’s requirements . One of the key features of the project was to be the maximum unification of its components.
In 2021, Oleg Korostelev, the general designer of the Luch Design Bureau, estimated the readiness of the complex at approximately 70% . At the same time, the company was considering creating a whole line of Ukrainian air defense systems with a range of about 10 km, 30–40 km, and up to 100 km, and Koral was supposed to occupy a middle niche in this system.
As a reminder, the Ukrainian company Fire Point has completed the development of the FP-7.X interceptor missile to combat ballistic targets. During testing, the missile confirmed the declared characteristics and should become the basis of the promising FREYA anti-missile complex.
As OBOZ.UA reported, the defense company Fire Point expects to accelerate the development of the joint Ukrainian-European FREYJA missile defense system, designed to intercept ballistic missiles. The company hopes that the first interceptors of the new system will be ready by the end of 2026.