Fire Point tests anti-ballistic interceptor prototype
Mid-flight missile interception (Photo: REUTERS/Gleb Garanich)
Ukrainian defense contractor Fire
Point has carried out the first guided flight test of its FP-7.X missile,
designed to intercept ballistic missiles, company CEO Iryna Terekh said on June
3.
Terekh posted a video of the test on Twitter and wrote that
the trial flight was “extremely important.” She said the FP-7.X will form the
basis of the FREYJA air defense system and described the effort as part of
Ukraine’s push for technological sovereignty.
“Each successful test of the new missile is a step toward Ukrainian technological sovereignty,” Terekh wrote.
“True independence is determined, among other things, by whether we can create critical technologies ourselves and make strategic decisions without depending on foreign political cycles, factories or priorities.”
In April, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine was exploring development of an anti-ballistic system in cooperation with European countries over the next year.
On May 14, Denis Shtilerman, Fire Point’s owner and chief designer, said the company had joined “an anti-ballistic coalition” and published a presentation on the pan-European FREYJA project. The project aims to build a unified, protected air and missile defense system with an emphasis on intercepting ballistic missiles.
The system is expected to integrate with other air-defense
elements using NATO’s Link 16 standard.
The military war may be swinging in our favor, but the information war continues.
Just as an army needs soldiers, so does a free society need its journalists to ensure that people have access to honest, trustworthy voices to understand the world around them.
For the past five years, The New Voice of Ukraine has been working tirelessly to push back against Russian narratives and defend democracy. But we cannot do it alone.
Please consider supporting us on Patreon for just $5 a month – your donation does directly to supporting journalists and ensuring that this front of the infowar says solid and defended.
Thank you.
Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Google News
