Ukraine has built its own jet-powered drone interceptor and it'll easily fit in the back of a pickup truck

Date:
Fri, 28 Aug 2026 21:10:00 +0000

Description:
Ukraine has deployed a reusable turbojet interceptor against Russian drones, while ballistic missiles remain a major unresolved challenge for Kyiv.

FULL STORY ======================================================================Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Threads Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Subscribe to our newsletter Ukraine has deployed a turbojet interceptor specifically designed to hunt Russian attack drones The compact aircraft can return home when an interception attempt fails Multiple warhead options allow the interceptor to tackle different aerial targets Ukraine's defense ministry has confirmed a new turbojet-powered aircraft built to shoot down Russian attack drones has now entered military service.

Dubbed Alexa Spatium, the compact v-tail craft was engineered domestically to intercept small aerial and surface threats across the battlefield. It was built chiefly to engage Russia's Geran-3, Geran-4 and Geran-5 kamikaze
drones, together with the frequently deployed Shahed-131 loitering munition. Latest Videos From TechRadar Watch full video here: Built for speed and reuse The aircraft measures 1.5 by 1.7 meters and is fired from a portable catapult stationed close to the front line.

If it fails to strike anything on a given mission, the interceptor is
designed to fly back toward its own launch point. You may like Don't let its name fool you: Ukraines P1-SUN interceptor has downed 5,000 drones Ukraine debuts 'Tsyklop' UAV that mimics the peregrine falcon but explodes on target Ukraine turns $200,000 AN-196 Liutyi kamikaze drone into reusable bomber to launch jet-powered missiles

It can be fitted with thermobaric, shaped-charge, fragmentation or high-explosive warheads, depending on the kind of threat it aims to destroy
in the air.

Guidance comes either from coordinates loaded before launch or through direct operator control once the aircraft is already flying toward its objective.
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Detection relies on an electro-optical camera paired with an infrared sensor, allowing it to spot enemy aircraft even in low visibility conditions.

As of the time of writing, Kyiv has not officially revealed the interceptor's top speed, and a statement from the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence left
several performance figures undisclosed. A wider race against faster threats Ukraine is not the only country fielding this kind of weapon, since Britain introduced a comparable system earlier in the year. What to read next First UAVs that can stalk and kill Russian Shahed drones autonomously have been battle-tested in the Kharkiv region Ukraine has used its own indigenous Tomahawk-lite guided jet bombs on targets 125 miles away Ukraine warns Russia has built metal-cutting drones to topple its power grid

Known as Skyhammer and built by Cambridge Aerospace, it also runs on a turbojet engine and hunts down Shahed-style drones.

It relies on a nose-mounted radar seeker and a fragmentation warhead built to disable rather than fully destroy its objective.

Neither weapon, however, offers real protection from ballistic missiles,
which travel far faster than any propeller or jet drone can manage.

This gap matters a great deal for Ukraine, whose stock of American-supplied Patriot missiles has thinned after years of steady combat use.

Ten European countries, Ukraine and the United Kingdom, formed an Anti-Ballistic Missile Coalition in July to help Ukraine close the gap.

During a Kyiv visit marking Ukraine's independence anniversary, held every August 24th, the U.K.s Prime Minister Andy Burnham confirmed its desire to help Ukraine .

London cleared MBDA, the joint European missile maker, to hand over
classified data on the Storm Shadow's internal components to Ukrainian engineers.

The move should let Ukraine begin producing its own version of the joint British and French cruise missile domestically.

Even so, none of these interceptors solve the core problem, since drones and missiles remain two very different categories of threat entirely.

Whether new missile production can scale quickly enough to matter will likely depend more on politics than on engineering alone.

That question, more than any single weapon unveiled this month, may
ultimately decide how well Ukraine's skies are defended through the coming winter months.

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