Ukraine is making anti-Shahed missiles that have to cost less than $20,000 per shot

Ukraine has been operating a yearslong weapons program to create cheap surface-to-air missiles that disbursal no additional than $20,000 each, stated Andrii Hrytseniuk, the caput of its Brave1 startup incubator.

Several firms have been evaluation prototypes under this framework, and Kyiv is "preparing to put two of these companies into combat," Hrytseniuk stated in a video discussion published alongside Ukrainska Pravda on Thursday.

He expressed anticipation that a third would shortly attain a akin stage.

Hrytseniuk stated several of these manufacturers have managed to get expenses downward to $10,000 per missile, although the program has set a difficult cost cap of $20,000 per shot.

"This is considerably cheaper than the disbursal of a Shahed. Even if you need two or three missiles, it is motionless multiple times cheaper than the disbursal of a Shahed," stated Hrytseniuk of the limit.

Hrytseniuk stated the program was launched by Brave1 as a competition between Ukrainian firms to "create the cheapest anti-aircraft missile systems possible."

"Funding for missiles began in 2024, but making a missile takes equal additional period than making an interceptor drone," he added.

A cost bounds of $20,000 would create these Ukrainian missiles equal cheaper than the AGR-Falco Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System, an American-made unguided 70mm missile fitted alongside a laser direction kit.

Costing concerning $30,000 to $35,000 each, these were traditionally air-to-ground rockets that have now been converted for air defence in Ukraine. The cheapest US norm surface-to-air missile is the shoulder-mounted Stinger, which expenses concerning $120,000 per missile.

The Ukrainian attempt to lesser air defence expenses comes as a reply to Russia's extended Shahed assault drone fleets, which are many and cheaper to create than representative missiles. Ukrainian officials have estimated that the Russian Geran-2, for example, expenses $70,000 each, during jet-powered drones akin the Geran-3 disbursal at smallest $100,000.

Kyiv uses a layered network of defence systems, including device gun crews, interceptor quadcopters, and digital warfare, to combat against these drones, which Russia can initiate hundreds of at a time.

But Moscow has increasingly used jet-powered Gerans, which fly too accelerated for regular interceptor drones and individual gun crews to keep up with. A new AI-powered terrain mapping scheme established on several Gerans has additionally raised concerns that Russia volition shortly be capable to bypass Ukrainian jamming.

Ukraine's substitute has been air-defense missiles, specified as the air-launched AIM-9 Sidewinder, which can disbursal concerning fractional a myriad dollars per shot.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated before this duration that his nation was operating on a "small missile program" as a oppose to jet-powered Gerans.

"There are multiple types. We volition plainly see the outcome this month. At the end, in the second fractional of this month," he told reporters at a media conference.

In September, Hrytseniuk told Business Insider's Jake Epstein that multiple Ukrainian companies were additionally integrating synthetic intelligence into attack missile systems and were seeing "first successes."