Ukraine Tests Cheap Patriot Missile Alternative

Ukrainian arms manufacturer Fire Point says the FP-7.x anti-missile interceptors could be ready for use by 2027.

Ukrainian servicemen walk past a Patriot air defence system in an undisclosed location, on Aug. 4, 2024. Sergei Supinsky/AFP via Getty Images

Ukraine has tested a new surface-to-air missile intended to offer a cheaper alternative to the interceptor missiles used in the U.S.-made Patriot air-defense system.

The Patriot air-defense system is designed to shoot down tactical ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and aircraft and has been heavily relied on by Ukraine for the bulk of the war.

Denys Shtilierman, co-founder of Ukrainian arms manufacturer Fire Point, confirmed in an interview with the Financial Times, published on June 10, that it carried out the first flight test of its FP-7.x anti-missile interceptor last week.

Shtilierman said the test had been “pretty successful.”

Shtilierman said mass production could begin as soon as August but is contingent on the company taking delivery of an infrared seeker for guidance, which Fire Point was hoping to source from Germany’s Diehl Defence.

He added that the completed missiles would be ready for use in theatre by 2027.

The rest of the air defense system—known as Freyja—including radars used to detect and target aircraft and the command-and-control system, will come from as-yet-unspecified European partners.

“Finishing this depends on the speed of our western partners and when they start moving,” Shtilierman said.

Kyiv has struggled to secure enough interceptors from its Western allies to defend itself against the constant Russian missile and drone barrage.

One massive Moscow-launched assault last week killed at least 22 people across the country, according to the U.N. Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine.

A man carries a dog in his arms among rubble outside a multi-story residential building that was damaged following Russian missile and drone strikes on Kyiv, on June 2, 2026. Roman Pilipey/AFP via Getty Images

Fire Point’s chief technology officer, Iryna Terekh, said in a June 3 post on X that the test involved “a fully controlled maneuvering flight of the FP-7.X rocket.”

She added that the company was “exerting all possible and impossible efforts” to enable Ukraine to “close its skies on its own.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on June 9 that he is working with the leaders of other European nations to develop anti-ballistic missile capabilities for the continent.

Zelenskyy said in a post on X that he was collaborating with the leaders of the UK, Germany, and France, informally known as the E3, on the project.

“E3 countries will help us with anti-ballistic capabilities,“ he said in the post. ”By the way, I hope that we will manage to develop a European anti-ballistic system together with the UK. We are working on it. We need it, and the UK needs it.”