A Ukrainian arms maker says it’s got a new high-speed interceptor built to hunt Russia’s jet-powered Shaheds

• A Ukrainian drone manufacturer says it has built an interceptor that can reach speeds of up to 230 miles per hour.

• This puts SkyFall’s P1-Sun JetKiller within comfortable range of being able to take on Russia’s jet-powered Shaheds.

• Russia is increasingly using these more advanced stray munitions to bomb Ukraine.

Ukrainian technological defense company SkyFall Russia is developing an interceptor plane that could shoot down its jet-powered Shahads, he said on Wednesday. faster attack drone class Which Moscow uses more regularly.

The P1-SUN JetKiller is designed with a maximum flight speed of 370 km/h, or 230 mph, at maximum altitudes of 9,000 meters, or roughly 30,000 feet, SkyFall said in a statement.

The company added that the drone can stay airborne for 15 minutes with a carrying capacity of 500 grams of explosives and can be configured with cameras for day or night operations.

Speed ​​and maneuverability are key requirements for an interceptor hoping to intercept and destroy a jet-powered Shahed.

Ukrainian interceptor drones were initially built to counter the Geran-1 and Geran-2, Russian versions of Iran’s propeller-driven Shahed. These fly at about 185 miles per hour, but newer jet-powered models called the Geran-3 can fly at 200 miles per hour.

Building cheap drones to counter these faster Witnesses has been a challenge for Ukraine. As Business Insider previously reported, reinforcing an interceptor droneA lot of fine-tuning is required to achieve these speeds, which must be mass-produced and often uses propellers.

The sheer amount of power required to propel quadcopters to 200 mph and beyond can cause drones to overheat; SkyFall said this wouldn’t be a problem in level flight with the JetKiller.

SkyFall said JetKiller also has a rig. Artificial intelligence based terminal routing systemThis is actually a targeting algorithm that directs the drone just as it is about to hit the quarry. Such technologies are increasingly appearing on Ukrainian drones this year.

SkyFall added that the system “allows the interceptor to detect and lock on to enemy targets at distances of up to 1 kilometer faster than the human eye.”

“What is remarkable is that it has already been used with approved interventions and has reached mass production,” said a company spokesman, identified only by the call sign Ares for security purposes.

Ares told Business Insider that the JetKiller has destroyed more than a dozen “jet-powered threats” on the battlefield, and SkyFall plans to begin mass production of these interceptors in August with a goal of 50,000 drones per month.

Kiev has said repeatedly this year that it is prioritizing low-cost interceptor technology to counter Russia’s jet-powered drones. Moscow fields at least three main types of jet-powered attack aircraft: geran-5The plane, which Ukrainian intelligence warned in January, can fly at speeds of up to 373 miles per hour.

JetKiller is now one of several interceptor drones that Ukrainian manufacturers say can fill that role. Another drone maker, Wild Hornets, told Business Insider’s Jake Epstein in May that it was testing a new version of its own drone. anti-sting It was designed to destroy jet-powered Shahads.

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