Ukraine making anti-Shahed missiles to cost less than $20,000 per shot as drone threat grows
A strict missile price cap
Brave1 launched a competition among Ukrainian companies to develop inexpensive anti-aircraft missile systems, Hrytseniuk said. The program’s maximum price is $20,000 per shot, though some manufacturers have reached costs of $10,000 per missile. At that cap, the Ukrainian weapons would cost less than the American AGR-Falco Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System, a 70mm unguided rocket equipped with a laser guidance kit.
Countering Russia’s drone fleets
Russia has increasingly relied on jet-powered Gerans. Their speed makes them difficult for regular interceptor drones and human gun crews to match.
Concerns over new capabilities
Some Gerans have an AI-powered terrain-mapping system, raising Ukrainian concerns that Russia could soon use the drones to bypass Ukrainian jamming. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said earlier this month that Ukraine was working on a “small missile program” to counter jet-powered Gerans. In September, Hrytseniuk told Business Insider’s Jake Epstein that several Ukrainian companies were also adding artificial intelligence to strike missile systems and had seen “first successes.”
Key points
- Brave1’s program caps the cost of each missile at $20,000.
- Some manufacturers have reportedly reduced missile costs to $10,000.
- Ukrainian officials estimate Geran-2 drones cost $70,000 each and Geran-3 drones at least $100,000.
- Ukraine’s missile effort aims to counter faster Russian Gerans and other Shahed attack drones.