Ukrainian defense company Fire Point deliberately registers its latest solid-fuel developments FP-7 and FP-9 not as missiles, but as "ballistic drones."
Ukrainian defense company Fire Point deliberately registers its latest solid-fuel developments FP-7 and FP-9 not as missiles, but as "ballistic drones."
This step is a forced reaction of manufacturers to an outdated bureaucratic system that turns the official codification of missile weapons into a multi-year process with a lot of unnecessary tests. This was stated by the company's chief designer Denis Shtilerman during a joint stream with volunteer Sergey Sternenko.
According to the developer, the current regulatory framework for missile weapons remains overburdened since Soviet times. Therefore, manufacturers are looking for legal ways to speed up the delivery of vital weapons to the front.
"Everything we do is not missiles, it's drones. The FP-7 is a ballistic drone. The FP-9 is a ballistic drone. Why? Because we never codify ourselves as missiles. To get through the bureaucratic labyrinth that they have built since the days of the Soviet Union, you have to waste years. I don't understand why there are a bunch of exams that no one needs," Shtilerman explained emotionally.
The chief designer of Fire Point emphasizes that currently the bureaucratic burden in the field of drones in Ukraine is actually the lowest in the world, which has allowed the country to survive in the most difficult times. If the weapon already has confirmed cases of successful combat use, the procedure for official approval for operation takes a few days.
"If everything works for you, you have confirmed lesions, you brought the documents, you have everything signed... In one or two weeks you have a codified product that the military can purchase," the designer noted.
At the same time, an attempt to legalize a similar product as a missile (especially an aircraft-based one), according to him, could cost the developers "half their lives."
According to Shtilerman, the state urgently needs to review the regulatory framework for all weapons and get rid of unnecessary Soviet rudiments. After all, it was the speed of decision-making and debureaucratization of the drone sector that once allowed the army to effectively destroy the enemy in conditions of an acute shortage of other means of destruction.
"We see what an advantage the drones gave. They saved us when we had absolutely no shells," the developer concluded.
Also on the stream, Stillerman said that Fire Point products are 90% made of Ukrainian components.
