Russia’s drones are getting faster and deadlier. The West is racing to catch up.

The Russian weapon looks kind of like a cheap cruise missile. It has a thin fuselage, outstretched wings, and a mini turbojet engine that propels it across the sky.

Ukrainian interceptor drones, initially designed to counter Russia's slower, propeller-powered drones, are being rapidly upgraded to combat newer, faster models and have already downed several Geran-5s. The race is no longer just to build interceptor weapons. It's to build ones with the speed to catch Russia's latest weapons.

American and European defense companies are rushing to develop similar capabilities to counter new Russian threats. Business Insider spoke with Western and Ukrainian military officers, officials, and defense companies about the push to develop next-generation interceptors.

Interceptor drones emerged in 2025 as one of Ukraine's top defense priorities. They quickly proved highly effective against nightly bombardments by armed Geran-2 drones, piston-powered aircraft with a maximum speed of about 115 mph.

The Geran-5, the newest variant, can fly at speeds up to 375 mph. Unlike its delta-wing predecessors, it more closely resembles a cruise missile. These drones, which are faster, deadlier, and harder to stop, are playing a growing role in Russian strike tactics.

Add BI in Google so our reporting is easier to find when you’re searching for what matters.

Russia is investing heavily in jet-powered drones. It has expanded the infrastructure at air bases to support their launch, and Zelenskyy said last month that Moscow plans to spend $12 billion on producing these drones and other strike weapons in 2027.

The rise in jet-powered drones has forced Ukrainian companies to adapt. Defense firms that built the first generation of interceptors are now developing faster models. Some, like Wild Hornets' Sting S or SkyFall's P1-SUN JetKiller, have already recorded combat kills.

Western defense companies have, throughout the war, developed new weapons based on the tactics and innovations observed in Ukraine. Now, many see faster interceptors as the next major leap, driven both by lessons from Ukraine and a growing appetite for cheaper ways to defeat drones.

Ukrainian Col. Volodymyr Gordiienko, the program design branch head at the NATO-Ukraine Joint Analysis Training and Education Centre, said that when jet-powered drones first began appearing in limited numbers last year, JATEC was working with French startup Alta Ares on defenses against older, slower threats.

Recognizing the emerging risk, JATEC advised monitoring the new drones, noting that they could become a capability gap. Alta Ares acted and developed an interceptor capable of taking down jet-powered drones. Gordiienko said that early identification and quick reaction gave NATO "a promising solution under development."

"Western defense innovation should be about anticipating future challenges," he said, "rather than spending several months developing solutions in reaction to an existing capability gap."