The P1-Sun JetKiller is designed to fly at a top speed of 230 mph, allowing it to catch Russian Geran-3s.
SkyFall
Ukrainian defense firm SkyFall said on Wednesday that it has developed an interceptor drone capable of taking down Russia's jet-powered Shaheds, a much faster class of attack drone that Moscow is using more regularly.The P1-SUN JetKiller is designed with a top flight speed of 370 kmph, or 230 mph, at maximum altitudes of 9,000 meters, or roughly 30,000 feet, SkyFall said in a statement.The drone can remain airborne for 15 minutes with a 500-gram explosive payload and can be configured with cameras for day or night operations, the company added.Speed and maneuverability are major requirements for an interceptor hoping to catch and destroy a jet-powered Shahed. Ukrainian interceptor drones were originally built to counter the Geran-1 and Geran-2, Russia's versions of the Iranian propeller-driven Shahed. These fly at top speeds of about 115 mph, but newer models with jet engines, called Geran-3s, can cruise at 200 mph.Making cheap drones to counter these faster Shaheds has been an uphill task for Ukraine. As Business Insider previously reported, souping up an interceptor drone, which has to be mass-producible and often uses propellers, to reach such speeds requires copious fine-tuning.The sheer amount of power needed to push quadcopters to 200 mph and above risks overheating the drones, which SkyFall said wouldn't be a problem with the JetKiller in straight-line flight.
