Inside Fire Point’s secret drone lab, Ukraine turns Soviet rocket stockpiles into new strike weapons

Which new weapons are already being used against Russian forces? What systems could appear soon? NV reports in this exclusive story.

Flying launch platform: How a common drone became a rocket carrier

One of the biggest claims leveled at Fire Point is that virtually anyone can walk into its production workshops. The rumor has long circulated on social media, but those spreading it have apparently never tried to enter the company’s sites.

As during NV’s previous visit, security was tight. NV’s journalist cannot say exactly where the meeting took place or where production is based.

Research and Development, or R&D, is the unit that works on future weapons, tests new concepts and turns ideas into usable systems.

The public usually sees weapons only after they have already been used widely and for some time. This time, NV was allowed to see new systems only now reaching the battlefield.

The centerpiece of the R&D unit is a rocket-carrying drone.

Developers say it is, broadly speaking, a standard FP-2-type drone fitted with several launchers for S-5 unguided aircraft rockets and a redesigned control system.

The operator can be on another continent and still guide the strike drone to its target in real time while firing rockets at Russian forces.

Russian air defense units recently published the first footage of such an attack. Robert Brovdi, commander of Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces, later also published video of rocket strikes from an FP drone.

Fire Point chief designer and co-owner Denys Shtilerman says one reason for the modification was Ukraine’s surplus of Soviet S-5 aircraft rockets.

The rocket is unguided: A pilot had to calculate distance, direction and other parameters to fire it at an enemy concentration.

During the full-scale invasion, Ukrainian aircraft often used these rockets, including from helicopters. But the development of air defense systems and a static front line made that tactic increasingly questionable.

Accuracy was limited, while the risks to aircraft and pilots were high. As a result, Ukraine has large stocks of S-5 rockets in various modifications but barely uses them.

The FP rocket-carrying drone can carry eight S-5 rockets and fire them from 1.5 to 3 kilometers away.

The S-5 can carry different warheads, with Soviet industry having produced about a dozen variants.

“We have long said the FP drone itself can serve as a flying platform. In reality, this platform can be used in many different ways — including for rockets,” Shtilerman says.

The chief designer dismisses one of the main doubts about the system: poor accuracy.

Shtilerman says the rocket-carrying drone can be effective, but only under the right conditions.

“Yes, this is not a precision weapon. But there are missions this version can handle. For example, strikes on trains carrying oil tank cars. We had several cases when operators intercepted such trains, but what could they hit? One tank car? Now we can launch rockets while approaching such a target, which increases effectiveness. Hitting several tank cars is entirely realistic, especially given that we can approach the target in whatever way works best for us,” he says.

R&D engineers say the rockets can also be used against oil depots and refineries, where pipes and tanks make for large, poorly protected targets.

But the rocket-carrying drone’s main mission is countering Russian air defense units.

In fact, the first public evidence of such a system came from Russian forces, which published video of an attack on one of their mobile fire groups.

The Ukrainian OSINT project CyberBoroshno later said the rockets fired from the drone did not hit the enemy air defense system, but the Russian commander was wounded when the drone was shot down.

Developers say the rocket version also requires little additional funding or complex engineering.

“I’ve seen criticism that the launches go ‘somewhere over there, toward the enemy.’ But this is how we suppress mobile fire groups. Of course, it would be better to destroy them with precise hits, but even if these launches reduce their effectiveness — if they abandon their positions before or during launches and run for cover — that is already a result. We need to adapt, and effectiveness will improve,” Shtilerman says.

He says the rocket-carrying drone is already in serial production and can be made in the quantities the military needs.

Demand and interest from units carrying out such strikes are already high.

Developers are also working on a version of the rocket-carrying drone that will be able to launch rockets automatically, without an operator, and at much longer distances.

Record warheads and FP motherships: New drones already on the battlefield

Continuing the discussion of FP drones, Shtilerman mentions FPV mothership drones for the first time.

Russian sources have already published evidence of such variants, meaning they can now be discussed publicly.

“Yes, the Russians published footage of such a drone being hit, and footage of an undamaged drone carrying FPVs, so they know about it. That is correct: There is a version of the FP drone that carries FPVs and acts as a relay for those FPVs. We will not yet discuss how it can be used or what possibilities it opens. This specific solution is the result of joint work with the military. It was their initiative. They understood how it could be used, and we created the technical capability,” Shtilerman says.

The company’s co-owner also mentions for the first time that Fire Point is preparing to use an FP-2 drone with a 200-kilogram warhead.

Shtilerman says that version will reach Ukrainian forces soon, while a version carrying a 170-kilogram warhead is already in use.

Previously, only an FP-2 with a 105-kilogram warhead had been known, meaning the company has nearly doubled its payload and destructive power.

“That increase came from certain technological and engineering solutions. There are major changes here. It is not simply the same FP-2 with twice as much weight placed inside it. Certain modifications were made, and that produced the result. But I think 200 kilograms is the maximum. There is a ceiling, there are limits, so making it 500 kilograms is impossible,” the Fire Point chief says.

Brovdi, the Unmanned Systems Forces commander, recently drew public attention to the quality of warheads used in Ukrainian UAVs.

He said that during an attack on the command post of a unit from Russia’s 58th Army in temporarily occupied Luhansk Oblast, Ukrainian troops had to use six drones, each carrying 100 kilograms of explosives.

Brovdi said two strikes should have been enough to destroy the site completely.

“Look, let’s take an example. The European Union told electronics manufacturers that all chargers now had to use a single standard — Type-C. Before that, there were about a dozen different types. Something similar has to happen in our case. We need a single mounting interface for the warhead initiator, so that all initiation boards — and not only those — are standardized. That has already begun. Common standards are being distributed among all manufacturers, and that should solve the problems,” Shtilerman says.

“As for quality control, we check every 10th warhead. We had cases, a long time ago, when a manufacturer placed a thin layer of high-quality explosive on top, while inside there were several layers of a less effective material. That had a very serious impact on power and effectiveness. We said: That’s enough — goodbye. But Ukraine now has very high-quality explosive warhead manufacturers,” he says.

At the end of the conversation, Shtilerman brings up the May UAV attack on Moscow, the largest since the start of the full-scale invasion.

The Fire Point chief admits he did not believe the drones would reach their targets.

“I had doubts, serious doubts. But everyone could see that we overwhelmed the air defenses. The number of our drones also played a role. When a swarm is coming at you and you do not have enough experience countering it, that affects the effectiveness of your defense. Our air defense forces across the country have experience, and when we repel enemy attacks, we use everything — a lot of different systems, even highly unconventional ones. They have much less of that experience. Overall, Russia is a highly centralized country. No one there cares what happens outside the capital, or even outside the Garden Ring. And attacks like these can strongly affect the thinking of the people who make decisions,” Shtilerman says.