Ukraine Unveils Coral Air Defense System Launcher for the First Time

During the MSPO defense exhibition in Poland, Ukraine presented the Coral anti-aircraft missile launcher for the first time.

A correspondent for Militarnyi reported this.

An image released by Ukroboronprom shows a missile being launched from a self-propelled launcher mounted on a Czech Tatra truck chassis. The missile is intended to intercept aerial and ballistic targets. It is planned to be used as part of an air defense system.

As the developer notes, in exceptional cases, it can also engage ground-based or surface-based radar-contrast targets.

The missile weighs 450 kg, of which 36 kg is the warhead. Its guidance system combines an inertial navigation system, radio correction, and an active radar homing seeker.

The missile has a diameter of 230/300 mm and a length of 4.8 m. Its wingspan is 835 mm, and its control surface span is 685 mm. Research and development work on the Coral project began in 2016. At that time, the missile project was referred to in documents as a component of a ship-based anti-aircraft missile system.

Coral became a topic of widespread public discussion in 2021, when the Luch Design Bureau unveiled a full-scale mock-up of the missile at the Arms and Security-2021 exhibition.

At that time, it was positioned as a standardized modular missile intended for use in both land-based and ship-based air defense systems, and potentially also as an air-to-air missile.

In the initial phase, Coral had significantly more modest stated specifications: a range of up to 30 km, an altitude of up to 10 km, a weight of about 300 kg, and a 25-kg warhead. The missile was 4.33 m long with a diameter of 230/260 mm. At the same time, the designers emphasized that specific characteristics could vary depending on the customer’s requirements.

One of the project’s key features was the maximum standardization of components.

In 2021, Oleg Korostelov, chief designer of the Luch Design Bureau, estimated the system’s readiness at approximately 70%. At the time, Luch was considering creating an entire line of Ukrainian air defense systems with engagement ranges of about 10 km, 30–40 km, and up to 100 km. Coral was intended to take the middle range in this system.