KIELCE, Poland — As Russia’s military is increasingly relying on jet-powered drones in its war against Ukraine, Ukrainian defense companies are intensifying their efforts to counter the threat while striving to make the interceptors cheaper than the targets they strike.
A number of anti-drone system producers from Ukraine are showcasing their solutions to military and industry representatives from Poland and other countries at this year’s MSPO defense industry show in Kielce, Poland, which runs from Sept. 8 to 11.
Ukraine’s UAV producer General Cherry is among the companies that are working on solutions to counter the threat that Russian jet-powered drones pose to the Ukrainian military. The company is developing a new kinetic booster version of its Bullet interceptor that is to have a maximum speed of some 450 km/h (280 mph).
“We have to make changes to the frame and the materials the drone is made of, using more heat-resistant materials,” Andrii Oliinyk, the senior international affairs manager at General Cherry, told Defense News at the event. “We plan to release it this fall after the testing phase is completed.”
Grim Tech, another vendor based in Ukraine, is developing a new interceptor designed to counter jet-powered drones, aiming to enable its new interceptor with a maximum speed of between 500 and 700 km/h.
“Russia uses almost only jet-powered Shaheds to attack Kyiv because the interceptors that we were using in the past against older generations of drones had an interception rate of around 90 percent,” a Grim Tech manager told Defense News at the show. “By the end of this October, we want to present our jet-powered interceptor.”
Ukrainian defense company BlueBird Tech supplies FPV drones, drone detectors, electronic warfare systems and unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) to the country’s military. Ahead of the MSPO show, company representatives told Defense News that research-and development speed is one of the biggest differentiators between BlueBird Tech and its Western counterparts.
“We’ve had to build a very effective R&D system. Our R&D cycles are usually measured in weeks, whereas elsewhere you might expect them to take years,” said Vadym Stepanchuk, the head of business development at BlueBird Tech. “We have already announced the development of our air-defense interceptor. It is still at an early stage.”
Stepanchuk said BlueBird Tech wants its interceptor to cost less than the targets it destroys.
“That is one of our fundamental design requirements, and it means we need to get the engineering right from a cost-efficiency perspective,” he said. “That’s the direction we’re pursuing: developing a jet-powered interceptor that can be affordable and mass-producible.”
The latest developments come as Ukraine’s manufacturers are readying for the potential lifting of an arms exports embargo that had prevented them from freely selling their products abroad. Earlier this year, the country’s government decided to establish a regulated framework that allows local defense companies to export surplus military gear to partner nations, provided they cover the Ukrainian military’s needs first. A rising number of Ukraine’s defense companies are also teaming up with U.S. and European partners to have their products manufactured abroad.
At the MSPO show here, numerous new partnerships between Ukrainian and foreign companies were forged, including a cooperation agreement signed by Estonia’s counter-drone and surveillance specialist DefSecIntel Solutions and Ukrainian-Estonian DoD Solution, a company focused on onboard computers and autonomy systems for unmanned platforms.
Jaroslaw Adamowski is the Poland correspondent for Defense News.
