A Russian design bureau that shapes both the Kremlin’s ballistic missiles and its military space ambitions has had its internal systems opened up, according to Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence.
The agency said its cyber specialists breached the Moscow Institute of Thermal Technology, walking away with material on the institute’s structure, management, employees and current and prospective programs. Operators also pulled personal data on 2,648 staff.
Its plants and design teams sit behind the RS-24 Yars and Topol-M intercontinental missiles, the Bulava submarine-launched missile, the Iskander-M system and the Oreshnik, with engineers handling software, engines, control components and guidance testing.
The space file is the quieter half of the institute’s portfolio. Its engineers work on satellite communications for the military, including two programs with strategic weight: Start-1M, a launch vehicle that would open a path to Russian low-Earth-orbit constellations, and Tiporyad, a unified space platform meant to sharpen intelligence, communications and command while hardening orbital infrastructure.
Published material on the operation did not detail how long the intrusion lasted or what was taken beyond employee records and program documents. The claims rest on Ukraine’s own intelligence service, which released the findings.
The release underscores how missile and space programs now share a target list for wartime cyber operations.
