Ukraine conducts final tests of several types of jet interceptors - Flash
In Ukraine, at least four types of jet interceptor drones are in the final stages of testing and combat evaluation. Some projects had to be significantly reworked by manufacturers after Russia switched to faster modifications of jet Shaheds.
Sergiy Beskrestny, known as Flash, told DOU in an interview.
According to him, Ukrainian developers initially focused on the Russian "Geran-3", whose speed was approximately 280-300 km/h. However, Russia switched to "Geran-4", which can accelerate up to 400-550 km/h. Because of this, some manufacturers needed to revise the design of their interceptors and increase their speed.
Development of such systems has been ongoing for more than a month. Back in April, the Ministry of Defense set manufacturers a separate task to create and scale jet interceptor drones to combat jet Shaheds. At that time, about 100 interceptor manufacturers were working in the Brave1 cluster, and over 40 teams had already received grant support.
One of the publicly shown Ukrainian interceptors, STRILA, was demonstrated in April to Volodymyr Zelensky and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. Max speed claimed for it was up to 415 km/h. Ukrainian WIY and German Quantum Systems also then agreed on possible joint production of anti-Shahed interceptors.
Four companies already have prototypes
At the end of August, Zelensky reported that four Ukrainian companies created interceptors against jet drones, and the equipment of one manufacturer shows better results. The President set a goal to bring the level of destruction of Russian drones above 90% in the fall.
On September 3, after the Staff meeting, Zelensky clarified that prototypes of high-speed interceptors have already been developed and are now being brought to necessary effectiveness. In parallel, Ukraine is working on low-cost missiles that can be mass-used against high-speed attack drones. Kurs.com.ua wrote about these plans the day before.
While specialized jet interceptors are not deployed in sufficient numbers, traditional air defense and combat aircraft are used against such targets. Flash estimates current effectiveness against jet Shaheds at over 80%, although this is his assessment, not official Air Force statistics.
Expectations regarding Ukrainian ballistics
In the interview, Flash also expressed confidence that Ukraine's own ballistic weapons could appear as early as next year. He expects first results from the anti-ballistic project FREYJA and mentioned the future interceptor "Grifin" with Meteor missiles as one of the possible means to combat guided air bombs.
At the same time, these words are not an official schedule for putting new weapons into service. Zelensky earlier formulated the terms more broadly: in August, he stated that Ukraine expects to obtain the necessary results from its ballistic and anti-ballistic programs in 2026-2027. Testing of Ukrainian ballistic missiles, according to him, showed promising results, but the development still needs to be turned into finished weapons.
According to: DOU, Office of the President of Ukraine, Office of the President of Ukraine, Ministry of Defense of Ukraine
