Ukraine unveils new Grom-2 short-range ballistic missile.

The Ukrainian military website (Mil.in.ua) has released pictures showing the new Ukrainain-made Grom-2 also called Thunder-2, a short-range surface-to-surface ballistic missile. The new missile will have a range from 50 to 280 km. The missile system is mounted on a 6x6 military truck which is used as TEL (Transporter Erector Launcher) mobile unit.

The new Ukrainian-made GROM-2 TEL (Transporter Erector Launcher) surface-to-surface ballistic missile (Picture source Mil.in.ua)

The Grom-2 is fitted with two missile launcher units mounted at the rear of a truck trailer. The new missile system, reportedly financed by Saudi Arabia, is designed to compete with Russia's advanced Iskander short-range ballistic missile (SRBM) system. Saudi Arabia has been reported to have covertly financed Resaerch & Development work on Grom-2, to the tune of about $40 million dollars.

In the summer of 2016, Ukrainian media reported that military engineers from the Yuzhnoye Design Bureau and the Pavlograd Chemical Plant had begun development work on the Grom-2 system using money from a mysterious foreign client. That secret client was soon revealed to be Saudi Arabia, whose investors provided around $40 million US for the design and development of the surface-to-surface tactical short-range missile system.

Work on the Grom complex was first announced at Arms and Security defense exhibition in Kiev in 2014. A year later, it was announced that mass production of the weapon could begin as soon as 2018.

The Grom-2 is a mobile short-range ballistic missile system fully designed and developed n Ukraine by Yuzhnoye Design Office and A.M. Makarov Southern Machine-Building Plant.

According to some military websites, Ukraine has already perform first test launch of its new tactical ballistic missile in the second half of 2017.