Technology is cool. Cats and dogs in the army are cute. And when those two things are combined that’s the cutest coolness. So here’s a video for you of how soldiers of the 14th Motorized brigade delivered food with a drone, which they then used to evacuate a dog and a cat from the position. They say those two furry guys are now friends.
April 13th marked the Arms Maker’s Day. President Zelenskyy awarded the most prominent people in the industry and said Ukraine, for the first time in history, is Armed well enough to defend itself from the Russian strikes.
He also said 3 particularly interesting things:
for the first time in this war, an enemy position was captured exclusively by unmanned platforms - ground systems and drones
not only Middle East, but also Africa and Europe are interested in Ukrainian drone technologies (and in Zelenskyy’s recent trip to Germany and Norway, big drone deals emerged as part of the cooperation)
Ukraine aims to have joint air defence with Europe, in particular against ballistic missiles
You probably heard of Fire Point. It’s that very company that aims to build anti-ballistic defence in Ukraine as an alternative to Patriot systems. These are good, but Ukraine has too few of them to protect more than 600 000 square kilometers of its territory. So the chief engineer of Fire Point, Denys Shtilerman, said in his latest interview that his company is working to fix that.
He also showed Ukraine’s newest missiles.
Now, Ukraine has been a motherland of ballistic missiles and one of the world’s top exporters of weapons. But after the collapse of the Soviet Union, some important documents remained in the Moscow KGB office, later there was no need to rush in missile production. But when Russia attacked, the industry gained momentum.
This is of course a secret topic. But here’s what we know.
In June last year, President Zelenskyy said that the Ukrainian Sapsan missile complex had been successfully tested. And in December it has been launched more or less regularly. The export name of the complex is Hrim-1 or Thunder and it’s something the Ukrainian Pivdenne Construction Bureau has worked on for years, even before the big war. Little information is disclosed, but 20-30 missiles are probably produced each month. The missile is often compared to ATACMS, but it flies further - 500 km. The warhead is 500 kg.
And now about Fire Point. The Ukrainian ballistic missile FP-7 is an analogue of the American ATACMS missile; however, it is 2.5 times cheaper. The FP-7 missile is a clone of a Soviet missile from the S-400 system and was created “to fill existing launchers”, Shtilerman said.
“We manufacture all components entirely ourselves, from the engines to the flight controller. That is, it fully depends on our production capabilities. Only the warhead is made to order for us,” the engineer said. He added that the FP-7 missile has already completed a test flight, and testing is now moving to a new stage — the missiles will be used for strikes against the enemy.
By the way, Fire Point’s missiles are codified as drones for now because the manufacturers don’t have time and energy to codify them as missiles while the government eliminated all the bureaucracy for drones. So here we are.
The most complicated thing to manufacture for missiles are engines and fuels.
Also, one of Fire Point’s leading engineers is 93 years old. So here's a tip for you - keep your brain busy and you will always be young. Do what you love, love what you do and you won’t be retired and bored.
Stay on the bright side and keep using technology for good.