Ukraine's military intelligence publishes supposed details of Russia's S8000 Banderol cruise missile

A screen-grab from Defence Intelligence of Ukraine website showing a graphic depicting a Russian S8000 cruise missile. (Defence Intelligence of Ukraine (DIU))

Defence Intelligence of Ukraine (DIU) has revealed what it says are some of the technical specifications of the Russian air-to-surface missile (ASM), the S8000 Banderol cruise missile, according to a 12 May post on the organisation's website.

The Banderol missile can travel up to 500 km at a cruising speed of 500 km/h and is equipped with a warhead weighing up to 150 kg, according to the DIU.

The image revealed by the DIU appears similar to imagery from a video of a visit by Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev to the Kapustin Yar test site in Astrakhan Oblast, Russia, in April. The missile seen there has a flat-bottomed, semi-circular fuselage with a dolphin-head-shaped nose, foldable control surfaces mounted beneath the body, a rear-mounted engine, and a single vertical tailfin, as per Janes Weapons: Air-Launched.

Another feature identified by the DIU is the missile's in-flight manoeuvrability, which the organisation compared with Russia's Kh-101, 3M-14, 9M727, or Kh-69 cruise missiles.

Both Kh-69 and Kh-101 are long-range cruise missiles, with the Kh-69 being an attempted analogue of Lockheed Martin's AGM-158 Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM), according to Janes Weapons: Air-Launched. The 3M-14 is a submarine- and surface ship-launched land-attack missile. The 9M727 is a Russian ground-launched cruise missile which is part of the Iskander-M family of missiles.