Andrii Hrytseniuk, head of Ukraine’s Brave1 startup incubator, said Ukraine has been implementing a years-long weapons program aimed at developing cheap surface-to-air missiles that cost no more than $20,000 each.
Several companies have been testing prototypes under this framework and Kyiv is “prepared to put two of them into battle,” Hrytsenyuk said in a video interview published by Ukrainian newspaper Pravda on Thursday.
He expressed hope that a third country would soon reach a similar stage.
Hrytsenyuk said that although the program set a hard price cap of $20,000 per missile, some of the manufacturers had successfully reduced the cost to $10,000 per missile.
“That’s much cheaper than the cost of Shahed. Even if you need two or three missiles, it’s still several times cheaper than the cost of Shahed,” Hrytsenyuk said of the limit.
Hrytseniuk said the project was initiated by Brave1 as a competition between Ukrainian companies to “make the cheapest anti-aircraft missile system possible.”
“Funding for the missiles starts in 2024, but building the missiles will take more time than building the interceptor drones,” he added.
The $20,000 price limit would make these Ukrainian missiles less expensive than the AGR-Falco Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System, which is a U.S.-made, unguided 70mm rocket equipped with a laser guidance suite.
These traditional air-to-surface rockets, which cost about $30,000 to $35,000 each, have been modified for use in Ukraine’s air defense. The cheapest U.S. standard surface-to-air missile is the shoulder-fired Stinger, which costs about $120,000 each.
Ukraine’s efforts to reduce air defense costs are a response to Russia’s massive fleet of Shahd attack drones, which are numerous and cheaper to produce than typical missiles. For example, Ukrainian officials estimate that Russia’s Geran-2 drones cost $70,000 each, while jet drones such as the Geran-3 cost at least $100,000.
Kiev uses a network of layered defense systems, including machine gun batteries, interceptor quadcopters and electronic warfare, to counter these drones, of which Russia can launch hundreds at a time.
But Moscow is increasingly using jet-powered Jelan aircraft, which fly too fast for conventional interceptor drones and human gunners to keep up. A new artificial intelligence terrain mapping system found on some Gerans has also raised concerns that Russia may soon be able to bypass Ukrainian interference.
Ukraine’s alternative is anti-aircraft missiles such as the air-launched AIM-9 Sidewinder, which costs about $500,000 per launch.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said earlier this month that Ukraine was developing a “small missile program” to counter the jet-powered Jelans.
“There are several types. We will clearly see the results this month. Finally, in the second half of this month,” he told reporters at a news conference.
In September, Hrytsenyuk told Business Insider’s Jake Epstein that several Ukrainian companies had also integrated artificial intelligence into attack missile systems and had achieved “initial success.”