(KYIV, UKRAINE) – Ukrainian defence manufacturer Fire Point is completing trials of a new long range missile with a reach of up to 850 kilometres and is developing a satellite constellation intended as an alternative to Starlink for Ukraine and Europe.
Co-owner and chief designer Denys Shtilerman disclosed the projects in an interview, according to UNN. “We are finishing tests of a missile that will fly 800-850 km, with an 800 kg warhead. We are also creating a satellite constellation for Ukraine and for all of Europe, which will be an alternative to Starlink,” Shtilerman said.
Parallel work continues on the Freya project. Fire Point recently carried out successful flight tests of the FP-7.X missile operating in an anti-aircraft system mode. During the test, the missile, under ground control, reached the calculated interception point specified by the radar.
Shtilerman stressed that the competitive advantage of Ukrainian developments lies not merely in their cost and combat experience but in a fundamentally different approach to weapons architecture. “We sell not only protection, we sell independence in that protection. We do not control the weapons after we have sold them. They are built on open architecture and open software,” the chief designer of Fire Point explained.
The rapid growth of the company, according to its co-owner, is occurring alongside increased competition in the global arms market. “We realised back in the autumn of last year that the pressure would only increase, because we have crossed the path of a very large number of players. We produce the cheapest and most effective drones. Our closest competitor is three times more expensive than us,” Shtilerman stated.
Alongside the growth of Fire Point, attempts at discredit on an international level have begun to appear, Shtilerman said. He cited a story involving a journalistic inquiry that allegedly came from Bloomberg representatives. “I was told that the editor in chief of Bloomberg would be interviewing you. I was asked if it was true that before drone production you were a casting agency that supplied models to Epstein Island. I said, ‘What the (…)? Complete nonsense!'” Shtilerman said.
Earlier, Denys Shtilerman stated that Ukraine, together with European partners, is working on creating the Freya anti-ballistic shield, which is intended to be a cheaper alternative to the Patriot. The project involves the use of the FP-7.X interceptor missile and an open architecture that will not allow the manufacturer or the selling country to remotely restrict the use of the system. The company is also working on the FP-9 ballistic system, which is being considered as an element of future deterrence against Russia.
In a separate interview in May, Shtilerman explained that the war has demonstrated a key lesson for both Ukraine and all of Europe: without its own air defence, no country can feel safe. He said this primarily concerns an air defence system capable of effectively intercepting ballistic threats, for which permission to use does not need to be requested from partners.
A key feature of the Ukrainian Freya project lies in its independence from external control. Shtilerman said that modern Western air defence systems often operate in a closed architecture format, where the supplier country or manufacturer effectively retains control over critical elements of the system. “Freya is about ballistic interception. We proposed a pan-European anti-ballistic shield based on our interceptor and based on an open architecture and software solution that will prove to the end user that this solution can never be turned off by the manufacturer, the company that sold it to them, or the country that sold it to them,” he explained.
As an example of the risks of dependence on foreign systems, Shtilerman cited the story of Qatar, which invested tens of billions of dollars, equivalent to approximately $20 billion (roughly £15.8 billion), in the purchase of American Patriot surface to air missile systems.
“You can invest 20 billion like Qatar in your own security, buy up Patriots, and one day, when Israeli aviation is flying to eliminate Hamas leaders, your radars will simply be remotely turned off. Israeli aviation will fly in and destroy the Hamas leaders. The Hamas leaders are very bad people, they needed to be destroyed. But the country invested 20 billion in its own air defence; what did it get? Total dependence,” the designer noted.
Shtilerman added that parallel to the Freya project, work is underway in Ukraine on the new FP-9 ballistic system, capable of striking targets on Russian territory at high speed and with minimal chances of interception. “We can strike 10, 20, 30 objects simultaneously on the territory of Moscow and reach such a pact: you do not touch our civilian infrastructure, and we do not touch yours,” he stated.