Ukraine seeks faster interceptors as Russia deploys jet-powered drones

Ukraine is racing to develop interceptor drones fast enough to catch a new generation of Russian jet-powered attack drones, after a drone strike hit a Kyiv school on 1 October before classes began, RTS Info reported. More than a hundred pupils were sheltering in the building at the time, authorities told Reuters; the same day, two Russian drones struck near the bases of the Pivdennyi bridge over the Dnipro, south of the capital, in a strike also believed to have involved jet-powered drones.

Russia's jet-powered Geran-4 and Geran-5 drones fly at 500 to 600km/h, far faster than the propeller-driven Shahed and Geran-2 models, which travel at under 200km/h, RTS Info reported, citing Ukraine's HUR military intelligence agency. A jet-powered drone covers eight to ten kilometres a minute; if it is detected only a few kilometres out, defenders have just tens of seconds to intercept it.

Ukrainian military intelligence estimates Russia launched about 450 of the faster jet-powered drones in June, rising to 2,850 in August, according to data cited by Reuters. Russia is producing about 3,000 Geran-4 and Geran-5 drones a month, Ukrainian intelligence estimates, according to the Ukrainian outlet United24 Media. The drones can also fly at several thousand metres, putting them beyond the reach of some light weapons, and can be redirected in flight.

Volodymyr Serdiuk, commander of an anti-aircraft unit, told the Associated Press the drones moved too fast for his unit to lock onto them properly. Ukraine has built a layered defence against the slower Shahed drones using jamming, guns, mobile teams and interceptor drones, the cheapest of which cost around $2,000, presidential adviser Oleksandr Kamyshin told PBS NewsHour in March. Combined with other defences, that system has pushed the rate of destroying Shahed drones above 90%, RTS Info reported. Ukraine's fastest interceptors currently reach only 300 to 400km/h, too slow to easily catch a Geran-5 at full speed.

Ukraine says it has already intercepted several jet-powered drones, though officials say this does not yet amount to large-scale protection. Zelensky said on 19 September that Ukraine's SBU security service had shot down a Geran-5 using an interceptor drone; the defence analysis group Janes reviewed footage and said the catapult-launched Ukrainian interceptor appeared to be jet-powered itself, though identifying the target as a Geran-5 relied on thermal video and on-screen markers. On 30 September, Ukrainian manufacturer SkyFall told Ukrainska Pravda its P1-SUN JetKiller had also downed a Geran-5, without giving a date or location for the interception.

Other Ukrainian interceptor drones, including the Sting S and SPYS, have also claimed successes, the Kyiv Independent reported, which said the Alexa Spatium, described as Ukraine's first jet-powered interceptor drone, entered service in August. Manufacturer Vluchnyk prices its Zorelit v5 interceptor at around $2,000, Ukrainska Pravda reported, while Fabian Hoffmann, a researcher at the Norwegian Institute for Defence Studies, estimated in the Kyiv Independent that a Geran-5 costs roughly one hundred and fifteen thousand dollars, against about thirty thousand dollars for the older propeller-driven version. Supplies of the small turbojet engines some interceptors need from European manufacturers fall well short of what is required, the Associated Press reported, according to RTS Info.