Commentators at the US outlet The War Zone say Russia’s newest missile, known as Izdelie 30, could turn into a serious headache for Ukraine’s air defense network.

They note that this weapon is cheaper, easier and faster to manufacture, while packing greater destructive power than earlier generations of Russian air-launched cruise missiles. The publication argues that Moscow’s shift to using Izdelie 30 also points to depleted stocks of older missiles and to a need to overhaul the production chain so it can keep pace with the growing rate of launches. According to the authors, Russia is now trying to field a missile in this class that costs less to produce and is better tailored to the nature of the current conflict.

Analysts cited by The War Zone say the designers of Izdelie 30 drew on technical solutions already used in other Russian missiles. This approach, they argue, helped bring down the unit cost, simplify the design and speed up development. At the same time, the outlet stresses that the new missile has notable weaknesses compared with more advanced models, pointing in particular to its inferior stealth characteristics, navigation capabilities and the use of decoy flare systems.