Destinus says it out-produces pre-2022 Europe in cruise missiles, but engines are the shortage
Dutch-headquartered Destinus says it now makes more cruise missiles per month than Europe did in a whole year before 2022. Engines, not airframes, are what Ukraine's strike programs lack, and the company expects to meet Europe's demand next year.
Destinus, a defense technology company headquartered in the Netherlands, says it now produces more cruise missiles each month than Europe as a whole did in a year before 2022, when Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. According to Euromaidan Press, however, what currently holds back Ukraine's long-range strike programs is not missile airframes but engines.
Engine supply pledge
The company also says that from next year it expects to be able to meet European demand for cruise-missile engines in the 1.5-kilonewton class. That demand includes Ukraine's. The kilonewton is a unit of thrust, used to describe how powerful an engine is.
What the source does not say
The available source text gives no specific production figures, missile models, contracts or delivery dates, so the scale of the increase cannot be put in numbers. The claims about output and future capacity are the company's own, and no independent confirmation is mentioned.
The report points to a weak spot in European defense manufacturing: Ukraine's strike programs are short of engines rather than finished missiles. If the company's expectation proves right, that bottleneck could ease next year.
