MBDA exhibits a Crossbow with a range of 800 km with an adequate warhead attributes inspiration from the Ukrainian Hell.

European missile conglomerate MBDA has shown off a rather interesting development at the DSEI 2025 exhibition currently taking place in London – the Crossbow cruise missile. Its development was not announced, but together with quite interesting characteristics and solutions, it is indeed a rather interesting surprise. As noted, its development lasted only seven months, but deliveries of the cruise missile could begin as early as 2026.

The First Look of this missile, demonstrates that the Crossbow developers were inspired by Ukrainian experience, in particular the “Hell” missile, which was presented in December 2024. Although, of course, this is only due to the fact that when solving the same problems, developers very often independently of each other come to the same answers, because they are the most effective. And MBDA was solving a very similar problem – to create a mass and cheap long-range cruise missile. And that’s why, they have installed a small turbojet engine above the fuselage, rather than embedding it in the fuselage, which does not have special stealth shapes, and they also abandoned the folding wing.

At the same time, the possibilities of developing MBDA objectively seem greater than Ukrainian solutions with so-called missile drones. The weight of the Crossbow warhead is 300 kg, the flight range is 800 km. But this is solely due to the larger dimensions of the missile itself: 5.3 metres in length, wingspan – 3 metres.

Simultaneously, the characteristics of the “Palyanytsia” were revealed, which are most likely very similar to those of the “Hell”: a range of 650 km, but the weight of the warhead is up to 100 kg. But of course, the dimensions are smaller: a length of 3.5 metres with a wingspan of 1.7 meters. The European Conglomerate decided not to waste time and resources on developing a complete launcher and placing the rocket in a transport-launch container. In particular, the render clearly shows the pragmatic-primitive design of the launcher on the Zetos chassis from Mersedes.

In Poland, during the MSPO 2025 arms exhibition, Ukroboronprom revealed the characteristics of the Ukrainian drone-missile “Palyanytsia”. Its existence was first announced on Ukraine’s Independence Day, August 24, 2024. The maximum flight range is 650 km, which almost coincides with the map of military facilities that fall into its zone of impact, which was published along with the first official announcement about it on Independence Day. The flight altitude is from 15 meters to 500 meters.

Guidance and navigation are carried out using GPS and an inertial system. The launch of “Palyanytsia” is carried out using a solid-fuel accelerator, after which the jet engine is turned on. One of the most interesting indicators is its speed, which reaches 900 km/h, which is comparable to the speed of the Russian Kh-101 cruise missiles. The length of the “Palyanytsia” is 3.5 metres, and the wingspan is 1.7 metres. Interestingly, compared to previous renders, the shape of the wings has changed, but the shape of the fuselage and tail remained the same.

Currently, there is no confirmation of the actual combat use of the “Palyanytsia”, as well as photos of it in person, or at least the wreckage of a downed aircraft. Although, earlier, there were suggestions that it was she who could magically destroy the ammunition depot in the city of Toropets.

Since then, the specifications have been kept secret, and now, more than a year later, they have been revealed. So, it turned out that the “Palyanytsia” weighs 320 kg, of which up to 100 kg is the payload.

And in general, MBDA’s Crossbow currently looks like a very interesting solution. At least more adequate to the needs and realities of war than the European Shahed rocket launcher with a 155-mm projectile inside, demonstrated by the conglomerate this summer.

Team Maverick