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Ukraine says it supplies its troops with nearly 1,000 interceptor drones a day.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n
It’s a major milestone for the anti-Shahed tech, which was still being developed in early 2025.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n
Ukraine’s defense ministry said it’s been working with over 10 interceptor manufacturers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Ukraine’s defense ministry said on Thursday that it has been supplying its troops with roughly 950 interceptor drones<\/a> every day since the beginning of December.<\/p>\n In its statement, the ministry said these drones were specifically to “counter enemy Shahed-type UAVs.”<\/p>\n Reaching nearly 1,000 daily delivered interceptors is a significant milestone for the production of such drones, which were largely still in prototyping stages at the start of the year.<\/p>\n These interceptors are first-person-view drones designed to fly into and destroy enemy aerial systems, typically using explosives or direct impact. A typical interceptor drone flies with four motor-powered propellers, but unlike the usual quadcopters, it is often shaped like a bullet or a rocket.<\/p>\n Initially built to destroy high-flying reconnaissance craft, they’ve since been evolved by Ukrainians to take down long-range attack drones at a low cost \u2014 primarily as a response to Russia launching large waves of Iranian-designed Shaheds this year.<\/p>\n “These systems strengthen protection against drone terror while preserving resources for intercepting cruise and ballistic missiles,” Ukraine’s defense minister, Denys Shmyhal, said in Thursday’s announcement.<\/p>\n The defense ministry also said it’s been working with more than 10 interceptor manufacturers and has placed more orders for next year.<\/p>\n For Ukraine, interceptors must be fast enough<\/a> to chase down drones such as the Shahed-136, which flies at a typical speed of 115 mph, while remaining cheap so that Kyiv’s troops can sustainably use hundreds of them a day. Russia has recently been attacking with roughly 5,500 Shahed-type drones a month.<\/p>\n Some Ukrainian drone makers have also been attempting to develop interceptors that can catch the Geran-3, the Russian version of the jet-powered Shahed-238<\/a>, which can reportedly fly at an estimated 230 mph.<\/p>\n Ukraine’s new production capacity comes after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in November that his country was producing roughly 600 to 800 interceptors<\/a> a day, falling short of his initial goal.<\/p>\n In July, Zelenskyy had set a production target of 1,000 interceptors a day.<\/p>\n Ukraine’s volunteer movements directly sponsor some interceptor drones for select military units, though their quantity is often limited compared to the scale of what the Ukrainian government provides.<\/p>\n For example, deliveries of the Wild Hornets’ Sting, a $2,500 interceptor, were mostly sponsored this year by the Sternenko Foundation<\/a>, a local crowdfunding organization.<\/p>\n Read the original article on Business Insider<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n