Ukraine bets big on interceptor drones as low-cost air shield
DNIPROPETROVSK REGION, Ukraine (Reuters) -When President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said at the end of last month that Ukraine needs $6 billion to fund the production of interceptor drones, setting a target of 1,000 a day, he had his reasons.
Having already reshaped the battlefield by doing work once reserved for long-range missiles, field artillery and human intelligence, drones are now fighting Russian drones - a boon for Ukraine's dwindling stock of air defence missile systems.
In the last two months, just one Ukrainian charity supplying aerial interceptor drones says its devices have downed around 1,500 of the drones that Russia has been sending to reconnoitre the battlefield or to bomb Ukraine's towns and cities.
INTERCEPTORS HELP TO SAVE VALUABLE MISSILE STOCK
Most importantly, such interceptors have the potential to be a cheap, plentiful alternative to using Western or Soviet-made air defence missiles, depleted by allies' inability, or reluctance, to replenish them.
Colonel Serhiy Nonka's 1,129th air defence regiment, which started using them a year ago to ram and blow up enemy drones, estimated that they could down a Russian spotter drone at about a fifth of the cost of doing so with a missile.
As a result, the depth to which these enemy reconnaissance drones can fly behind Ukrainian lines has decreased sharply, Nonka said.
Some estimates put the interceptors' speed at over 300 kph (190 mph), although the precise figures are closely guarded.
Other units are using interceptors to hit the long-range Shahed "kamikaze" drones that Russia launches at Kyiv and other cities, sometimes downing dozens a night, according to Zelenskiy.
In the three and a half years since Russia invaded Ukraine at scale, drones have gone from an auxiliary tool to one of the primary means of waging war for both sides.
To chase them down, interceptor drones need to be faster and more powerful than those that have already revolutionised long-range precision strikes and aerial reconnaissance.
INTERCEPTOR DRONES TO BECOME UBIQUITOUS
Like the First-Person View drones that now dominate the battlefield, interceptor drones are flown by a pilot on the ground through the video feed from an onboard camera.
'When we started to work (with these drones), the enemy would fly at 800 or a thousand metres," the officer who spearheaded their adoption by the 1,129th regiment, Oleksiy Barsuk. "Now it's three, four or five thousand – but their (camera) zoom is not infinite.'
Most of the regiment's interceptor drones are provided by military charities that crowdfund weapons and equipment through donations from civilians.
Taras Tymochko, from the largest of these, Come Back Alive, said it now supplies interceptors to 90 units.
Since the project began a year ago, the organisation says over 3,000 drones have been downed by equipment it provided, nearly half of them in the last two months.
However, such interceptors are still no match for incoming missiles or the fast jet-powered attack drones that Moscow has recently started deploying.
The organisation reports the value of the downed Russian craft at $195 million, over a dozen times the cost of the drones and equipment handed over under the project.
Sam Bendett, adjunct senior fellow at the Centre for a New American Security, said Russian forces were complaining about the effectiveness of large Ukrainian interceptors, but were also developing their own.
'We're starting to see more and more videos of various types of interceptions by both sides ... I think this is going to accelerate and it's going to become more and more ubiquitous in the coming weeks."
(Editing by Kevin Liffey)
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Star
26 minutes ago
- The Star
Trump-led Texas redistricting gambit ignites national arms race to control Congress
(Reuters) -The escalating political fight over the Texas congressional map is spreading across other states across the country, triggering an unprecedented mid-decade redistricting arms race with the balance of power in Washington at stake. At President Donald Trump's urging, Texas Republicans have proposed new congressional districts aimed at flipping five Democrat-held U.S. House seats in next year's midterm elections, further skewing what is already considered a deeply partisan map in that state. In response, Democratic governors elsewhere - most notably Gavin Newsom of California, the only state with more congressional districts than Texas - have threatened to retaliate by mounting their own redistricting efforts. "Donald Trump is a cheater, and so is Governor Greg Abbott," JB Pritzker, the Democratic governor of Illinois, told reporters on Tuesday. Standing alongside him were several of the Democratic lawmakers from Texas who fled their home state on Monday to deny Republicans a quorum and prevent a vote on the proposed new map. "As far as I'm concerned, everything is on the table," Pritzker said. Democrats need to flip only three Republican-held seats to retake the majority in the 435-seat House next year, so even modest gains for either party via redistricting could prove decisive. If Democrats win the House, they could stymie much of Trump's legislative agenda and pursue multiple investigations into his administration. The practice of partisan gerrymandering - manipulating district lines to benefit one party over another - has a long tradition in the United States, but the advent of powerful software and sophisticated voter data has allowed mapmakers to drill down to individual streets and neighborhoods. Redistricting typically occurs every 10 years to incorporate the U.S. Census count. Trump has broken with that convention by openly pushing Texas Republicans to pursue a rare mid-decade redistricting for partisan gain, even though the existing map, which Republicans drew just four years ago, resulted in the party winning 25 of the state's 38 seats. "I won Texas. I got the highest vote in the history of Texas, as you probably know, and we are entitled to five more seats," Trump told CNBC on Tuesday, referring to the 2024 presidential election. Trump has encouraged other Republican states to follow suit. A senior White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters last week the administration believes as many as five states could redraw their maps, including Florida, where Governor Ron DeSantis has expressed a willingness to take such a step. DEMOCRATS VOW TO FIGHT BACK Ohio Republicans will draw a new map ahead of the November 2026 election that could flip at least two Democratic seats. In Missouri, where Democrats hold two of the state's seven seats, some Republican lawmakers have had preliminary conversations about a new map, according to a source familiar with the matter. Other Republican-controlled states that could in theory use redistricting to target Democrats include Kansas, Kentucky and New Hampshire. Democrats, meanwhile, face some legal hurdles in their biggest states. In California, where redistricting is overseen by an independent commission, voters would likely have to approve giving Democratic lawmakers the power to draw a new map. Newsom said on Monday he would put the issue before voters this autumn if Texas moves forward. Experts say a Democratic-drawn map could easily target five Republican incumbents, even though Democrats already hold 43 of the state's 52 seats. New York Governor Kathy Hochul said on Monday that she would not "fight with my hand tied behind my back." Even so, any new map in her state would require voters to approve a constitutional amendment, and that process cannot take place before 2026. In Illinois, where Pritzker and the Democratic-controlled legislature have no restraints, Democrats already hold 14 of the state's 17 U.S. House seats, leaving them without much room to maneuver. THREATS TO TEXAS DEMOCRATS Meanwhile, in Texas, the Republican attorney general, Ken Paxton, said on Tuesday he would seek court orders declaring that any Democratic lawmakers who failed to return by Friday will lose their seats. Democrats have dismissed that threat as empty. David Froomkin, a law professor at the University of Houston, said he did not believe judges would buy the argument that lawmakers had created vacancies by leaving the state in protest. "Courts have generally taken the view that a legislator has surrendered their seat when they have chosen to surrender their seat," he said. "Here, they're not intending to vacate their offices – they're exercising their offices by trying to prevent the passage of legislation they find troubling." Paxton's threat follows warrants issued by the Republican Speaker of the Texas House, Dustin Burrows, for authorities to bring the absent lawmakers back to the statehouse for a vote. Abbott has ordered state law enforcement to help find them. But the Democrats have all left the state, putting them beyond the reach of any state agency. Trump told reporters late on Tuesday that the FBI 'may have' to get involved in forcing Democrats back to Texas. (Reporting by Joseph Ax in New York; Additional reporting by Nandita Bose in Washington; Editing by Frank McGurty and Howard Goller)
New Straits Times
26 minutes ago
- New Straits Times
Trump says pharma, chips tariffs incoming as trade war widens
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump signalled Tuesday that fresh tariffs on imported pharmaceuticals and semiconductors could be unveiled within the coming week, as a cascade of incoming duties promises to reshape global trading ties. Governments around the world are bracing as new waves of US tariffs are due to take effect this week, first on many Brazilian products Wednesday and then on dozens of other economies – including the European Union and Taiwan – beginning Thursday. Trump's sweeping plans have sparked a flurry of activity as leaders seek to avert the worst of his threats, with Swiss officials heading to Washington on Tuesday in a last-minute push to avoid punitive duties. But the US president appears set to widen his trade wars. Trump told CNBC on Tuesday that upcoming tariffs on imported pharmaceuticals could reach 250 per cent, while adding that he plans for new duties on foreign semiconductors soon. "We'll be putting (an) initially small tariff on pharmaceuticals, but in one year, one-and-a-half years, maximum, it's going to go to 150 per cent," Trump said. "And then it's going to go to 250 per cent because we want pharmaceuticals made in our country." Trump also said that Washington will be announcing tariffs "within the next week or so." He added: "We're going to be announcing on semiconductors and chips." Trump has set out varying tariff rates for dozens of economies after imposing a 10 per cent levy on almost all trading partners in April. But these broad duties taking effect Thursday exclude products like pharmaceuticals, steel, aluminium and lumber, which are being separately targeted by sector. This means that although the 39 per cent tariff Swiss leaders seek to avoid come Thursday excludes pharmaceuticals, Trump's plans for a steep levy on such imports will likely remain a point of contention in any talks. Pharmaceuticals represented 60 per cent of Swiss goods exports to the United States last year. Outside of Switzerland, most products from the European Union face a 15 per cent tariff starting Thursday, after Washington and Brussels struck a deal to avoid higher levies. But Trump warned Tuesday that the EU could see its tariff level surge again if it did not fulfil obligations under their recent pact. Some imports from Canada are also targeted by tariffs, although Prime Minister Mark Carney stressed Tuesday that more than 85 per cent of trade between the North American neighbours remains tariff-free under existing exemptions. Besides probing pharmaceuticals and chips imports, Trump has already imposed steep duties of 50 per cent on steel and aluminium, alongside lower levies on autos and parts. In the same CNBC interview Tuesday, Trump said he expects to raise the US tariff on Indian imports "very substantially over the next 24 hours" due to the country's purchases of Russian oil. This is a key revenue source for Moscow's military offensive on Ukraine. His pressure on India comes after signalling fresh sanctions on Moscow if it did not make progress by Friday towards a peace deal with Kyiv, more than three years since Russia's invasion. Moscow is anticipating talks this week with the US leader's special envoy Steve Witkoff, and the Kremlin has criticised Trump's threat of raising tariffs on Indian goods. Weak employment data last week pointed to challenges for the US economy as companies take a cautious approach in hiring and investment while grappling with Trump's radical – and rapidly changing – trade policy. The tariffs are a demonstration of raw economic power that Trump sees as putting US exporters in a stronger position while encouraging domestic manufacturing by keeping out foreign imports. But the approach has raised fears of inflation and other economic fallout in the world's biggest economy.
The Star
an hour ago
- The Star
Canadian minister hails 'productive' Mexico meeting as US tariffs loom
Mexico's President Claudia Sheinbaum, Canada's Finance Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne, and Canada's Foreign Minister Anita Anand pose for a picture in Mexico City, in this undated handout photo obtained by Reuters on August 5, 2025. Mexico Presidency/Handout via REUTERS MEXICO CITY/TORONTO (Reuters) -Top Canadian ministers held a "productive" meeting with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and some of her top officials during a visit to Mexico City on Tuesday, Canada's top diplomat said, as the two nations navigate a volatile tariff environment. Mexico's economy minister had signaled earlier in the day that talks would cover the two countries' policies in response to a volley of tariff announcements from U.S. President Donald Trump. The three countries have tightly bound economies. Canadian Foreign Minister Anita Anand said in a post on X that she and Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne had spoken with Sheinbaum to reaffirm bilateral ties. Anand also met with her Mexican counterpart Juan Ramon de la Fuente, she said. "These discussions with the president and members of her government advanced key shared priorities in terms of economic growth, security and trade diversification," she added. Mexico's Economy Minister Marcelo Ebrard said earlier in the day that he was also set to speak with Champagne about the two countries' experiences in dealing with tariffs imposed on goods shipped to the United States. "They want to know how Mexico is getting these results," Ebrard told journalists. Mexico was able to avoid 30% tariffs on its shipments to the U.S. set to come into force last week, securing a 90-day pause to work on a trade deal with the government of U.S. President Donald Trump. Meanwhile, Trump slapped a 35% duty on many goods coming from Canada, hiking the rate from a 25% fentanyl-related tariff imposed earlier this year. "We're going to exchange experiences," Ebrard said. "They're paying a 35% tariff, and Mexico isn't." Mexico is still subject to the previously imposed 25% fentanyl tariffs, though goods sent under the United States-Mexico-Canada (USMCA) trade agreement - which are most of them - are exempt. Trump has said the U.S. would continue to levy a 50% tariff on Mexican steel, aluminum and copper and a 25% tariff on Mexican autos and on the non-USMCA-compliant goods. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum met with the Canadian finance minister, Francois-Philippe Champagne, as well as Foreign Minister Anita Anand, earlier in the day at Mexico's national palace. "We're strengthening the relationship between our countries," she said in a post on X. (Reporting by Kylie Madry and Diego Ore in Mexico City and Ryan Patrick Jones in Toronto; Editing by Sarah Morland and Stephen Coates)
