Zelensky explained why Ukraine still lacks mass protection against jet-powered "Shaheds"

At the time of Russia's mass transition to the use of jet-powered strike drones, Ukraine did not have a sufficient number of means to destroy such high-speed targets. Currently, more than 60 Ukrainian companies are working on solutions, but creating mass protection requires time and significant funds for production.

This was stated by President Volodymyr Zelensky during a joint press conference with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.

Zelensky noted that the Ukrainian air defense system is constantly forced to adapt to changes in Russian weaponry. According to him, after Ukraine accumulated significant experience in countering conventional strike drones, Russia began to more actively use drones with jet engines.

"We must be very honest: we did not have enough tools to destroy these high-speed targets", - said the president.

According to Zelensky, more than 60 companies are currently working on solving this problem. The president assured that Ukraine will find a response to the new threat, but admitted that this takes time.

A separate problem is scaling up production. Even after working technologies appear, Ukraine will need to produce thousands of interception means, and this requires appropriate funding.

That is why, according to the president, Kyiv seeks to expand joint weapons production with partner countries and create production lines abroad.

Several developers have already shown results

Earlier, Zelensky specified that 67 Ukrainian companies are developing means to counter jet-powered drones. At the same time, three to five manufacturers have already demonstrated practical results, but the key task remains the transition to mass production.

On September 3, after the Staff meeting, the president reported that prototypes of high-speed interceptors had already been created. Then he set the task to accelerate their refinement to the required level of efficiency and increase output as much as possible.

It is not only about interceptor drones. Ukraine is also working on cheap missiles that would allow not spending significantly more expensive munitions of traditional air defense systems on relatively cheap Russian drones.

Russia sharply increased the use of jet-powered UAVs

The problem became especially acute after a sharp increase in the number of jet-powered drones in Russian attacks.

Yuriy Ignat, head of the communications department of the Air Force, reported at the end of August that in July alone Russia used five times more jet-powered UAVs than in June. In August, according to the Air Force, the Russian Federation launched more than 2,800 high-speed drones.

The effectiveness of countering them is also significantly lower. While Ukrainian air defense neutralizes conventional "Shaheds" in about 90% of cases, the figure for jet-powered UAVs is about 60%.

The reason is significantly higher speed. Some Russian jet-powered drones and munitions of this class can accelerate to about 600 km/h, due to which mobile fire groups and conventional interceptor drones have much less time to react.

Expert: the threat could have been foreseen

Anatoliy Khrapchynskyi, development director of a defense enterprise and reserve Air Force officer, believes that Russia's transition to the mass use of jet-powered UAVs was predictable, but Ukraine did not manage to timely deploy appropriate countermeasures.

In his assessment, the Russian side has long been moving toward the use of cheaper jet-propelled strike means that can be mass launched without involving strategic or tactical aviation. The goal of such tactics is to make each launch cheaper and at the same time sharply increase the number of targets for Ukrainian air defense.

Khrapchynskyi believes that Ukraine still has time until the end of September to significantly strengthen counteraction to the new threat. For this, in his opinion, it is necessary to act in several directions at once.

One option is to deploy own drones with jet engines or create small cheap missiles. The speed of the interceptor should allow it to catch up with a Russian UAV.

The second critically important component is a branched radar field. It must ensure detection of a jet target and its continuous tracking along the route so that the interception means receives accurate coordinates.

According to the expert, with such a radar field, conventional interceptor drones can also be adapted, in particular by automating the moment of detonation near a high-speed target.

New interceptors must move from prototypes to mass production

Thus, the main problem now lies not only in creating a single drone capable of shooting down a jet-powered "Shahed". Ukraine needs to build a system that will simultaneously include early target detection, its tracking, rapid interception means, and their mass production.

Zelensky emphasized that Russia constantly changes technologies and tactics, so countermeasures also have to be updated virtually in wartime mode. It is precisely the need to quickly scale new solutions that explains the president's course toward joint production of drones and air defense systems with Canada and other partners.

During Zelensky's visit to Canada, the parties agreed to deepen co-production of drones. Carney also announced that Canada will join Ukrainian defense projects, and a part of the drones produced within the new partnership will go directly to Ukraine.

Based on materials from: press conference of Volodymyr Zelensky and Mark Carney, ZN.ua, Ukrainska Pravda