FARNBOROUGH, England — With Russia sending ever-greater numbers of faster, jet-powered Shahed attack drones into Ukraine, several defense companies are working urgently to build a new breed of high-speed interceptor drones capable of countering the threat.
One of those companies is SkyFall, a prominent Ukrainian drone manufacturer, which introduced a new high-speed interceptor drone this past Monday at the Farnborough Airshow in the United Kingdom — one of the largest aviation events in the world.
The new drone, called the P1-SUN Jetkiller, is a faster evolution of the company’s current interceptor model, which has already been in use on Ukrainian battlefields since late last year.
Drones were a central theme at this year’s airshow, as conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East have highlighted the shortcomings of traditional defense systems when faced with large volumes of inexpensive weapons. European missile manufacturer MBDA is rolling out an interceptor designed to handle mass attacks by low-cost munitions like drones, while Lockheed Martin also announced a more affordable Patriot interceptor on Monday.
Shaheds are low-cost, long-range attack drones originally designed by Iran that have become a persistent and devastating weapon against Ukraine. Russia has been launching thousands of them at Ukraine every month. Moscow has modified the original design — which it calls the Geran — adding new capabilities including jet engines, allowing the drones to strike deeper inside Ukraine, including the capital Kyiv.
The jet-powered versions of the Shahed can fly at speeds reaching 500 kph, or about 311 mph. That speed dramatically shortens the window Ukraine has to detect the incoming drones and respond, and it exceeds what most current interceptors are capable of matching.
SkyFall says its new interceptor can reach 370 kph, compared to the earlier model’s top speed of around 310 kph. A company spokesperson told Reuters that development on the new version began roughly three months ago, that it has already been tested in combat, and that it has brought down more than a dozen jet-powered Shaheds. Mass production is planned to begin in August, the spokesperson added.
The original P1-SUN model has taken out more than 5,500 Shaheds since it was introduced in November 2025, according to the same spokesperson, with the company saying it has the manufacturing capacity to produce 50,000 units per month. Reuters was not immediately able to independently confirm those battlefield figures.
Specialists say Russia’s use of jet-powered Shaheds has climbed sharply in recent months. According to Yuriy Cherevashenko, a senior commander in Ukraine’s air force, roughly 15 to 20 percent of the Shaheds Russia is currently sending are jet-powered rather than propeller-driven, as Reuters reported in April.
Another Ukrainian drone company, General Cherry, is also developing a faster variant of its existing Bullet interceptor drone, one built specifically to go up against jet-powered Shaheds. Company spokesperson Marko Kushnir said the new version is in its final development phase and can already exceed 400 kph, with hopes to push that figure to 500 kph.
Kushnir said one unresolved question is what will power the new drone, as the company is still evaluating both electric motors and small turbo-jet engines. Front-line testing is targeted for early August, with mass production potentially beginning in September.
Cost remains the biggest hurdle, Kushnir noted, saying the goal is to keep the price close to that of the existing Bullet interceptor, which runs at about $2,000 or less. He said the current Bullet model has destroyed more than 1,000 standard Russian Shaheds since last November.
A British-Ukrainian firm called Firebolt Engineering is also entering the race, saying it has already developed a jet-powered interceptor of its own. The company’s Griffen drone can currently reach speeds of up to 350 kph, according to Chief Executive Mykola, who asked to be referred to only by his first name for security reasons. The Griffen intercepted its first Russian Shahed — a non-jet-powered one — in May, and the company is working to scale up production, Mykola said in a phone interview with Reuters on Sunday.
Firebolt is currently collaborating with a British firm called Dynamic Propulsion on a new engine they hope will push the Griffen’s top speed to around 400 kph. Dynamic Propulsion CEO Gus Gingel emphasized that keeping costs manageable is essential. “It’s about the compromise on materials in order to be able to produce something that is disposable rather than expensive,” he said.
For Ukraine, the jet-powered Griffen interceptor is priced at under $10,000, according to Tomasz Wozniak, a partner at Grenadyr, an investment firm that backs defense technology companies including Firebolt Engineering and Dynamic Propulsion. That price tag is several times higher than existing non-jet-powered interceptors currently on the market.
