KIELCE, Poland — The head of a high-profile Ukrainian defense company says that while the international Freyja anti-ballistic missile project may not have made “flashy” strides in the weeks since its July inception, there has been a wave of important “technology integration,” with more on the way.
Without falling to vendor lock, “our task is to choose the best players in the market, integrate the whole architecture together [and] tailor each system to the purpose of being able to intercept ballistic targets,” Fire Point CEO Iryna Terekh, told Breaking Defense on the sidelines of the MSPO defense exhibition here.
Firepoint’s FP-7X missile serves as Freyja’s interceptor, and the company acts as main system integrator for the 10-nation program. It is targeting a cost of $1 million per unit. (Full scale mock ups of the company’s FP-1 long-range drone, FP-5 Flamingo cruise missile, alongside FP-7 and FP-9 ballistic missiles, were displayed here at the show.)
Terekh said she had “just returned” from a Freyja steering group meeting co-led by Norway and Ukraine, alongside involvement from industry executives.
“[A] lot has happened since the anti-ballistic coalition was signed in Paris,” she explained. “Of course, it is not maybe something flashy to show, but by the amount of technical integration work that is already behind [us], I see how the approach” is producing an initial result.
