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Олег ОнопрієнкоWeapon
22 July 2025, 09:25
2025-07-22
The President called for contracting all effective interceptor drones to counter the "shaheeds." We understand how they work, what is on the market, and how effective they are compared to other air defense systems.
In recent weeks, Russia’s “shaheed” attacks on Ukraine have become more massive: on the night of July 21, 2025 alone, the enemy launched about 450 air targets. Against this background, German General Christian Freuding warned: “Russia intends to launch up to 2,000 drones into Ukraine simultaneously.” To overcome these challenges, interceptor drones are coming to the forefront — high-speed quadcopters with warheads capable of catching up with and blowing up enemy UAVs on approach.
In recent weeks, Russia’s “shaheed” attacks on Ukraine have become more massive: on the night of July 21, 2025 alone, the enemy launched about 450 air targets. Against this background, German General Christian Freuding warned: “Russia intends to launch up to 2,000 drones into Ukraine simultaneously.” To overcome these challenges, interceptor drones are coming to the forefront — high-speed quadcopters with warheads capable of catching up with and blowing up enemy UAVs on approach.
How do interceptor drones work?
Interceptor drones are small FPV quadcopters with fragmentation warheads that fly towards enemy UAVs and destroy them in the air. They are also called anti-aircraft drones. They are designed to reach speeds of hundreds of kilometers per hour and are controlled by an operator using goggles.
The first interceptor drones showed their effectiveness in destroying enemy reconnaissance drones in early 2024. Almost immediately after the first results, the Brave1 defense cluster announced a competition to develop interceptor drones to combat reconnaissance UAVs.
Why have interceptor drones begun to be used against the "shaheeds" now?
Drone interceptors are a response to the increase in the number and quality of enemy kamikaze attack drones. Recall that the record for the number of “shaheeds” launched over Ukraine was 728 drones on the night of July 9. In addition, Iranian-Russian UAVs have become “smarter” and much more deadly, as aviation expert Anatoly Khrapchinsky told dev.ua in detail. The Ukrainian air defense system simply cannot withstand such a number of simultaneously launched targets.
Mobile fire groups. "Shaheeds" began to fly at an altitude of 2-5 km, which minimizes the effectiveness of mobile fire groups. Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrsky said that interceptor drones are almost twice as effective as mobile fire groups.
"The Armed Forces of Ukraine are developing interceptor drones to counter Russian "shaheeds", the effectiveness of which is about 70%," said Syrsky.
Electronic warfare. Electronic warfare systems have also become less effective in suppressing kamikaze drones. Fewer and fewer "shaheeds" are returning to Belarus, and new electronics allow them to better counter Ukrainian electronic warfare.
Tactical aviation. The use of aviation also has its risks. Ukrainian fighter pilot Vadim KARAYA Voroshilov shot down five "Shaheeds" in October 2022, but due to the low speed of the drone, its debris after the shootdown hit the fuselage of the fighter, which was traveling at a much higher speed and fell into a cloud of debris. The pilot had to make an emergency ejection, and the fighter was lost. Helicopters are involved in shooting down drones, and even civil aviation, which was recently allowed by the government to protect the sky, but the real results are meager.
Price. Due to the change in policy towards Ukraine by the current US presidential administration, we have also not received many valuable air defense assets that could protect Ukrainian skies from drone invasion. Although US President Donald Trump has stated that Ukraine will receive additional Patriot systems, using contract-priced Patriot missiles (~ $5 million) to shoot down "cheap shaheeds" would be illogical neither from an economic nor a rational point of view, since air defense missiles are needed primarily to shoot down ballistic and cruise missiles.
The main advantage of interceptor drones is their low price. Ukrainian developers estimate the cost of such drones at $2,000-4,000.
Challenges and risks of using interceptor drones
Most experts note that anti-aircraft drones are an effective method, but by no means a panacea. Oleksandr Syrsky stressed that to increase the effectiveness of interceptor drones, it is necessary to deploy radar systems like the Israeli Rada radar. There are not enough such systems in Ukraine. This is also confirmed by military expert Serhiy "Flash".
Volunteer and head of the Sternenko Community NGO, Serhiy Sternenko, said in one of his streams that the Air Force lacks qualified FPV pilots who can fly interceptor drones, so the number of devices produced is not important if there are not enough specialists. This problem is understood even at the highest levels of the state.
"Among the top priorities should be appropriate training of operators of such drones and support of the entire infrastructure: from production to the use of interceptors," said President Zelensky.
Ukrainian interceptor drones
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that this week all available interceptor drones that have shown their effectiveness in shooting down "shaheeds" should be contracted. Now let's figure out how many "shaheed" liquidators are being developed by Ukrainian companies.
In April, an interceptor drone was demonstrated that can fly at a maximum altitude of 5 km and accelerate to a speed of 200 km/h, and the maximum flight altitude is 5 km. At the time, it was noted that this is the most successful Shahed interceptor, having shot down more than 20 such UAVs as of April 2025.
Most of all, the Ukrainian company Wild Hornets ' Sting "shaheed hunter" is known, which can fly at a speed of over 160 km per hour and climb to a height of about 3 km. Later, the company showed testing of a new version of the Sting drone , which was compared to a fighter jet from Star Wars on social networks. The updated UAV reached a speed of over 200 km per hour. At the end of June, Wild Hornets showed a new interceptor drone in the sky over the Kherson region, which is capable of climbing to a height of 11 km.
WIY DRONES has developed a drone-interceptor for the Shahed strike UAV STRILA, which can be launched from special mobile platforms. STRILA reaches speeds of over 300 km/h. The developers do not disclose the detailed characteristics of the drone, but note that the aerodynamic body minimizes air resistance and increases the effectiveness of interception.
ODIN Night Crew drones called Win_Hit are also used to counter "shaheeds". In cruising mode, the drone reaches speeds of 220 km/h and up to 300 km/h during an attack approach. The mission of one drone lasts from 7 to 10 minutes, depending on the configuration. The developers have provided for the possibility of night or day use thanks to interchangeable modules and sensors.
Western interceptor drones
Similar UAVs are being developed by several Western companies. In late 2024, Brave1 reported that Ukrainian operators flew a Tytan drone from German manufacturer Tytan Technology to personally test its capabilities. This UAV is designed to intercept Russian-Iranian “Shaheed” drones and enemy reconnaissance drones and can be controlled from the Steam Deck.
Two American tech companies, IronNet and Asterion Systems, have created a counter-UAV system that is being called a potential “game changer” in Russia’s war against Ukraine . The defense network is formed by combining IronNet’s Iron Dome cybersecurity system, which provides real-time cyber threat detection, with Asterion’s Hitchhiker counter-UAV technology. The system is designed to neutralize enemy drones.
It is the drones that will be countered by the Hitchhiker, a high-speed, electrically powered interceptor drone designed to destroy enemy drones, such as the Iranian Shahed.
Additionally, Swedish startup Nordic Air Defence has developed the Kreuger 100 platform , which launches extremely small drones to intercept enemy UAVs. They can be launched from a handheld device or a compact ground-based system, and are capable of countering Russian Orlan-10 reconnaissance drones and Iranian Shahed kamikaze drones.
Instead of a conclusion
One of the key conditions for protecting Ukrainian skies from the “Shaheeds” will be the widespread deployment of interceptor drones. As President Zelensky stated when introducing the new Minister of Defense: “Now every night the “Shaheeds” are shot down by interceptors, but there should be many times more such results.” However, many experts note that the interceptor drones are a reaction to Russia’s actions and in the future the enemy will find ways to counter this. Therefore, the best guarantee of a safe sky will be the destruction of the enemy’s production facilities on its territory.
"Every site in Russia that Moscow uses to produce weapons must become accessible to our Defense Forces," President Zelenskyy said.
"The Russians are purposefully implementing the concept of increasing the damage to the population." 10 insights into the threat from the updated "shaheeds" who fly into Ukraine every day
