KYIV, June 3 (Reuters) – Ukraine’s largest missile and drone maker, Fire Point, has conducted a flight test of a ballistic missile that will serve as the foundation of a project to create a missile air defence system, the company’s CEO, Iryna Terekh, said on Wednesday.
“Recently, we conducted an extremely important test: a fully controlled manoeuvring flight of the FP-7.X missile, which will form the basis of the future Freyja anti-ballistic interceptor,” Terekh wrote on X.
The FP7.X is the interceptor variant of Fire Point’s FP7 ballistic missile, which is currently in development and which the company says will also be able to attack ground targets.
Fire Point’s co-owner Denys Shtilierman told Reuters in April that it was in talks with unnamed European companies to launch a new air defence system capable of downing supersonic ballistic missiles by the end of next year, creating a low-cost alternative to the U.S.-made Patriot.
The missile itself is only one component of an air defence system. Analysts say its most complex parts are the ground radar network and the targeting system in the missile.
Russia, which invaded Ukraine in 2022, frequently launches ballistic missile attacks. On Wednesday, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Europe needed to step up with its counter-ballistic missile programme.
Kyiv has complained for months about a critical deficit of interceptor missiles for the Patriot, the only reliable weapon in its arsenal against ballistic threats.
Terekh posted a video showing a pink missile being fired from a rail launcher in a field with a pixelated background.
Fire Point, founded after the war began in 2022, now says it makes thousands of long-range drones every month. It also makes the Flamingo cruise missile, which Ukraine has used to hit several important Russian military-industrial sites.
(Reporting by Max HunderEditing by Tomasz Janowski)
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