Ukrainian defense company Fire Point has developed and deployed a unique missile-carrying drone on the battlefield. This aircraft-type UAV is capable of launching unguided missiles directly in the air, after which it can act as a classic kamikaze drone.
Ukrainian defense company Fire Point has developed and deployed a unique missile-carrying drone on the battlefield. This aircraft-type UAV is capable of launching unguided missiles directly in the air, after which it can act as a classic kamikaze drone.
The details of the project were revealed by the chief designer and co-owner of Fire Point, Denis Shtilerman, in an interview with NV journalist Serhiy Okunyev. According to the developer, the technology has already passed the experimental stage and is being steadily used by the Unmanned Systems Forces (USF) at the front.
The main concept of the platform is to optimize the cost of destroying group targets and save expensive equipment. Instead of spending one kamikaze aircraft on one object, the new drone carries up to eight unguided aircraft missiles of the C-5 type. This allows covering fire on several targets at once in one sortie.
«The idea came up: if you’re hunting for a railway junction where there are a bunch of tanks, there’s no point in losing one plane for one tank. We hung up eight S-5 missiles, made a sighting net for them. Now we can blow up not one locomotive, but four tanks and a locomotive at the same time,» Denis Shtilerman explained.
In addition to strikes on railway infrastructure, drones are effectively used to suppress Russian mobile air defense fire groups. Even if the missiles do not destroy the installation with a direct hit, the very fact of the attack forces the enemy crew to quickly retreat and leave their positions, clearing the way for other means of destruction.
The designers integrated the launch system on the basis of an existing aircraft platform without deep modification of the fuselage. Due to the deterioration of aerodynamics in the presence of suspended weapons, the basic flight range of the drone is from 100 to 300 km. However, in modifications with a larger fuel tank and an integrated control system via Starlink, the range of the device increases to 500 km.
An important advantage of the development is the use of existing Soviet S-5 missiles. Previously, these 57 mm ammunition had limited prospects for use on the front line due to the short launch range from manned aircraft, which risked being hit by enemy air defenses. Their integration into UAVs gave the old weapons a new lease of life.
In addition, the developers have implemented fully automated launch algorithms. Theoretically, such aircraft are capable of independently approaching the target and launching missiles at strategic facilities in the deep rear of Russia, in particular at oil refineries (REFs).
