Ukraine’s defence firms step up efforts to counter Russian jet-powered UAVs

As Russia increasingly turns to jet-powered drones in the Ukraine war, defence manufacturers are stepping up efforts to develop faster and more capable interceptors, while also trying to ensure that the cost of destroying an incoming drone does not exceed the price of the target itself.

Several Ukrainian producers of anti-drone systems have been presenting their latest technologies to military and industry representatives from Poland and other countries at the MSPO defence industry exhibition in Kielce over the last few days, as covered by reporters from the Defense News network.

Among the companies developing new ways to deal with Russia’s increasingly sophisticated UAV threat is General Cherry, a Ukrainian producer of unmanned aerial vehicles. The company is working on a new kinetic booster version of its Bullet interceptor, which is expected to reach a maximum speed of around 450 km/h.

The upgraded interceptor will require changes to the existing design, including modifications to its frame and the use of materials capable of withstanding higher temperatures.

“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 exhibition. “We plan to release it this fall after the testing phase is completed.”

Another Ukrainian company, Grim Tech, is also working on an interceptor specifically designed to engage jet-powered drones. The company is aiming for its new system to reach a maximum speed of between 500 and 700 km/h, which would give it a significantly greater ability to pursue faster-moving targets.

“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.”

BlueBird Tech, meanwhile, has developed a broader range of unmanned and counter-drone technologies for the Ukrainian military, including FPV drones, drone detection systems, electronic warfare equipment and unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs). Company representatives told Defense News ahead of the MSPO exhibition that one of the main advantages they believe Ukrainian manufacturers have over many of their Western counterparts is the speed with which they can develop and adapt new technologies.

“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.

The company is also seeking to address one of the biggest economic challenges associated with counter-drone warfare: ensuring that interceptors remain affordable enough to be deployed on a large scale. Stepanchuk said BlueBird Tech considers it essential that the interceptor costs less than the drone it is designed to destroy.

“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.”

Exporting war takeaways

The latest developments come as Ukrainian defence manufacturers prepare for the possibility of greater access to foreign markets following restrictions that had previously limited their ability to export military products. Earlier this year, the Ukrainian government decided to establish a regulated framework allowing domestic defence companies to export surplus military equipment to partner countries, provided that the needs of Ukraine’s own armed forces are met first.

At the same time, an increasing number of Ukrainian defence companies are forming partnerships with US and European firms, allowing some of their technologies and products to be manufactured outside Ukraine. Such arrangements could help Ukrainian manufacturers expand production while also bringing their battlefield experience and rapidly developed systems to international markets.

The MSPO exhibition has provided an opportunity for several such partnerships to take shape. Among the agreements signed at the event was a cooperation deal between Estonia-based DefSecIntel Solutions, which specialises in counter-drone and surveillance technologies, and Ukrainian-Estonian DoD Solution, a company focused on onboard computers and autonomy systems for unmanned platforms.

By Nazrin Sadigova