Ukraine’s FP-2 drone escalates February strikes on high-value Russian targets
Not only did February see the successful use of the FP-5 Flamingo heavy cruise missile on targets deep inside Russia, but it also appears that Ukraine’s Firepoint FP-2 one-way attack drone levelled up. Over the past couple of weeks, the number of high-value Russian targets destroyed with FP-1/FP-2-type drones has seemingly rocketed.
Ukraine’s medium-range FP-2 drone
The FP-2 drone was presented in September 2025 and is a medium-range strike drone able to carry a 100-kilogram warhead and is based on the older FP-1 long-range drone. The range is reduced from 1,400 kilometres to 200 kilometres, allowing it to carry a much larger warhead.
Ukraine’s news outlet, Militaryni, reported at the time, “The drone is available with autonomous guidance for strikes on stationary targets, as well as a version that allows manual control via radio to hit moving targets.”
Militaryni also noted in September that the FP-2 was relatively low-cost, had a heavy warhead, and had the potential to strike in Russia’s rear areas. It said FP-2s flying at low altitude and in large numbers could evade or overwhelm Russian air defences, threatening logistics hubs, weapon depots, etc.
February seemingly saw the drone pick up the tempo and effectiveness in destroying high-value Russian targets, including air defences, missile launchers, and logistics sites.
Major leap in FP-2 high-value strikes
It is unclear what has been driving the uptick, but it’s possible the FP-2 is benefiting from refinements in flight stability and potential mesh networking. The latter would allow the FP-2 to operate at extended ranges with more precise and synchronised attacks.
On the 10th of February, Ukrainian FP-2 drones struck a forward drone operator base in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region.
Yesterday, the senior fellow for the Foreign Policy Research Institute, Rob Lee, posted a compilation of new videos with the caption, “More videos of Ukrainian middle strikes with FP-2 and other UAVs on Pantsir-S1, S-400, Buk-M1, Uragan MLRS, and Malakhit radar.”
This was replying to Rob Lee’s own post on the 21st, showing an FP-2 destroying a Russian Smerch MLRS, which in turn was replying to a post the previous day with more FP-2 strike videos.
The same day, it was also reported that two more Russian Tor air defence systems were destroyed by drones from Ukraine’s @usf_army and @414magyarbirds. This brought the total number of Russian Tor systems destroyed over the past half-week to the 22nd to five.
Jakub Janovsky, who manages the Oyrx blog, noted, “If anything like this rate of Russian SAM losses continues, this could become a serious problem for Russia…”
Meanwhile, on the 24th February, the respected OSINT account, Special Kherson Cat, posted videos of the FP-2 in action, destroying a Russian 220mm Uragan MLRS in a similar manner it had destroyed a 300mm Tornado MLRS a few days prior.
Special Kherson Cat then stated, “FP-2 drone spots a missile salvo in the distance, heads to the launch point, hits the target, and a second FP-2 behind it monitors the damage.”
The carnage against these high-value Russian targets has continued. Last night, FP-1/FP-2 drones were reported to have struck a S-400 launcher, a 92N6E radar station of the S-400, more supporting components of the S-400, and a Pantsir-S1 system.