Destinus and Germany's Rheinmetall have announced they are accelerating the development of a 2,000-kilometer strike missile to be tested in Ukraine. The companies say the RUTA Block 3 flight tests are planned for 2027.
Destinus and Rheinmetall are structuring Block 3 for industrial-scale production across three countries under European design control. It is a deliberate break from the small, expensive deep-strike stockpiles that European militaries have relied on, many of which are sourced from the US.
250-kg warhead
The Ruta Block 3 is planned to be equipped with a next-generation turbojet engine, an enlarged Destinus T220, and a 250 kg-class warhead.
The system will combine advanced autonomous navigation for environments with degraded GNSS signals with terminal sensing and guidance capabilities currently under development. It will also feature a standard ISO container launch architecture, enabling deployment on land, at sea, and from fixed platforms
Deep-strike class that European militaries have largely lacked
Block 3 is built for a 2,000-kilometer range, roughly four times that of the RUTA Block 2 now in flight testing, placing the family in a category European forces have mostly had to buy from Washington or do without, AeroTime reported.
Production chain split across three countries
RUTA Block 1 is in serial production in the Netherlands, while Block 2, developed with Ukraine's state-backed Brave1 platform, is in flight tests in Ukraine and ramps up production in 2026, Ukrainska Pravda reported.
The Netherlands serves as design authority, Ukraine handles testing and key components, and Germany hosts the Rheinmetall Destinus Strike Systems joint venture — Rheinmetall 51%, Destinus 49% — at Unterlüß, with the first missiles expected before the end of 2026, Interfax-Ukraine reported.
The program is built around industrial scale, not exquisite numbers
The company said the program is designed to transition European long-range missiles from limited stockpiles to sustained industrial production, according to UNITED24 Media.
"Europe is entering a new defense era where the decisive factor is ... the ability to produce, replenish, and evolve at an industrial scale during prolonged high-intensity operations," said Mikhail Kokorich, CEO of Destinus.
RUTA Block 3 is "designed around that reality: sovereign European architecture, distributed industrial production, and the ability to scale rapidly across allied nations," he added.
The objective, he added, was "not to manufacture symbolic quantities of exquisite missiles, but to help establish a credible European long-range strike capability with real industrial depth."
