19FortyFive: new Russian rocket “Banderol" caused alarm in Ukraine
Ukrainian military intelligence claims that Russia has created a new cruise missile called the S8000 Parcel, writes 19FortyFive. This weapon, according to the Gurus, has unique capabilities. Russian sources did not report on the creation of such a missile.
Sebastien Roblin
Russia regularly attacks Ukraine with swarms of kamikaze drones, heavy hypersonic ballistic missiles, as well as subsonic and supersonic cruise missiles launched from huge strategic bombers. However, according to recent reports, the Ukrainian GUR military intelligence is facing a smaller threat: a Russian medium-range cruise missile called the S8000 Banderol is so small that it can be launched by attack helicopters and Orion combat drones.
The new Russian weapon highlights two problems. On the one hand, GUR officials emphasize that this is another example of Russian weapons assembled from a mixture of Chinese and Western components. At least some of them will be limited by targeted sanctions.
But the “Parcel” fits into the global demand for significantly cheaper weapons for precision strikes from a long distance. The military is looking for lighter weapons to be mounted on smaller and cheaper platforms that lack long-range attack capabilities as standard.
“Parcel” in numbers
The "parcel” first got into photographic lenses at the Russian Kapustin Yar training ground in 2024. Obviously, it has already been used in combat, since the specialists of the HUR were able to obtain and study the spent projectile. Ukrainian sources suggest that it was with “Parcels” that the Russians could strike Odessa and Mykolaiv in southern Ukraine in February. Russia demonstrated the missile, without naming it, during Dmitry Medvedev's visit to Kapustin Yar on April 26.
The five-meter-long rocket has a fuselage with a diameter of 30 centimeters, and the silhouette resembles the American stealth cruise missile JASSM. It is reported that the strike range is 500 kilometers (probably an approximate figure), and the cruising speed is 560 kilometers per hour (with a maximum of 650 km/h). At the same time, the rocket carries a 115-kilogram high-explosive fragmentation warhead.
Neither the range, nor the speed, nor the power of the warhead are impressive compared to traditional cruise missiles, but they fully satisfy Russia's needs. In addition, Orion drones can launch “Parcels” from beyond the range of Ukrainian air defenses. At the same time, their speed creates significantly more problems for defense during early warning and interception compared to kamikaze drones.
At the moment, no other navigation methods are specified for the “Parcel”, except for a combination of inertial navigation and a noise-proof satellite navigation antenna “Kometa—8M” - this means that it is suitable only for attacks on predefined static targets.
GUR also claims that the Banderol can perform turns with a smaller radius than typical cruise missiles of the Russian arsenal, without specifying how or why. In general, sharp maneuvers are more necessary for evasion. In addition, it implies the presence of an attack warning system, pre-programmed maneuvers on approach to the target, or the ability to receive commands remotely.
“Multinational” small cruise missile in the service of Russia
GUR strongly emphasizes that the “Parcel”, in fact, is a mixture of civilian components from 30 different international companies. It is claimed that it uses the Chinese turbojet Swiwin SW800Pro-A95 as an engine. This 20-centimeter diameter device can be purchased online for just $16,000.
Its inertial navigation system is also Chinese, the RFD900X telemetry module is Australian, and the Murata batteries are Japanese. The MX-64AR steering drives are South Korean, and the RF power amplifiers are American. The chips are supplied from the aforementioned countries, as well as from Switzerland.
This mosaic shows that Russia is constantly improving its ability to purchase dual-use components abroad through a network of intermediaries.
It is reported that the components of the “Parcel” were purchased, in particular, through the Russian electronics retailer Chip and Dip, which, oddly enough, escaped widespread Western sanctions (except for the United States and Ukraine).
Why do drones and helicopters need longer-range missiles?
The Banderol is another example of a new generation of precision weapons designed specifically for launching from drones, whose payload threshold is usually significantly lower than that of manned platforms.
In particular, it is designed to be placed under the fuselage of the Orion medium-altitude combat drone from the Kronstadt company, similar to the decommissioned American MQ-1 Predator (Predator) and Turkish TB2 Bayraktar (Bayraktar).
The finest hour of the Ukrainian Bayraktars and Russian Orions at the beginning of the conflict was short-lived: since the echelon air defense systems appeared on the front line with some delay, both types of UAVs quickly became rare. Slow and without stealth capabilities—and at a cost of many millions of dollars apiece—they proved too vulnerable to the enemy's medium-altitude air defenses. By the way, the same disaster befell the even more expensive MQ-9 drones deployed by the United States against the Houthi rebels.
Although Russia continues to effectively use the Orions in areas of the front where Ukraine has been unable to deploy air defenses for various reasons, they have generally been limited to a supporting role compared to the cheaper Orlan surveillance and reconnaissance drones and Zala products, as well as Lancet and Geranium kamikaze drones.
Thus, the Banderol allows the Russian Orion fleet to make a stable contribution with strikes at both strategic and operational depth with little risk of losses. Compared to ground-launched jet “Geraniums”, aviation “Parcels" can be launched from a closer distance and from more unpredictable angles (for example, over the Black Sea).
Russia's interest in installing “Parcels” on Mi-28H helicopters (according to the NATO classification: Havoc or “Devastator”) for launching from wing pylons is due to the same problems that befell combat UAVs: attack helicopters, originally conceived as launch pads for direct-guided anti-tank missiles, hardly survive against modern air defenses of the Near East. actions. Thus, there is an increasing preference for longer-range indirect guidance weapons that deprive the enemy of the possibility of retaliatory strike, whether it is the Russian LMUR anti-tank missile (or the 305 Product) or the Israeli Spike missiles, which are mounted on American Apache helicopters for long-range precision fire.
The “Parcel” undoubtedly embodies the growing demand in Russia and in the world for a new generation of cheap cruise missiles suitable for protracted wars of attrition: ideally, up to 80% of solutions are half-priced. Realizing that it could use up its existing stocks of guided weapons in a matter of weeks of high-intensity combat, the Pentagon launched a number of programs to mass-produce ammunition from ready-to-use components on the commercial market.
The Kronshtadt company widely uses such components in the production of “Parcels". This fits into a cost—minimization strategy - although we do not yet know either the unit price or the monthly production rate of these munitions.
It is clear that the Ukrainian military is not thrilled that Russia is mastering the production of smaller and, apparently, significantly cheaper cruise missiles as an intermediate solution between heavy and expensive cruise and ballistic missiles and cheap but slow kamikaze drones.
Sebastien Roblin holds a master's degree in conflict studies from Georgetown University and is a former Peace Corps officer in China. He writes about technical, historical, and political issues of international security and conflict for such publications as 19FortyFive, The National Interest, NBC News, Forbes, and War is Boring.
