P1-Sun interceptor drones produced by Ukrainian defense tech company Skyfall have shot down more than 3,000 Russian Shahed-type attack drones in 2026, Hanna Hvozdiar, adviser to Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, said at the European Business Summit, Forbes Ukraine reports.
Ukraine has built a scalable, economically sustainable answer to mass Shahed attacks. With production already running two to three times above domestic need, Ukraine is positioned as a potential supplier for allies facing the same drone-saturation threat.
The economics Ukraine is banking on
"Ukrainian manufacturers have created interceptor drones with an average cost of up to $3,000," Hvozdiar told the summit. That price point, she said, is what enables Ukraine's Defense Forces to bring down up to 90% of incoming Russian Shaheds.
Hvozdiar tied the shift directly to the volume of Russian strikes and the arithmetic of conventional air defense. "No country can produce enough air defense missiles to intercept everything Russia launches. In January alone, there were more than 6,000 missiles and drones," she said. An air defense interceptor missile runs $20,000–$30,000 and a Shahed costs up to $50,000, the adviser added — numbers that put a $3,000 drone in a category of its own.
Who is building Ukraine's interceptors
Forbes Ukraine reports that four of the five most effective Ukrainian interceptor drones — Sting, Merops, P1-Sun, and Blyskavka — were created by private companies. Only one project is a joint development of Ukrainian state engineers and the United Kingdom. Skyfall entered the niche among the latest entrants, with its P1-Sun scheduled to enter production in November 2025.
The three-week war between the United States, Israel, and Iran sharpened international interest in Ukrainian interceptor drones capable of downing Iranian-designed drones at a price tag 4,000 times smaller than American missiles, according to Forbes Ukraine.
Recent field milestones
On 17 April, Ukrainian drone manufacturer Wild Hornets announced a new control-range record for its Sting interceptor. Two days later, on 19 April, Ukraine's Unmanned Systems Forces reported that Ukrainian troops had, for the first time worldwide, shot down an enemy Shahed using an interceptor drone launched from a surface platform, publishing footage of the operation.
Production is outrunning demand
In March 2026, Ihor Fedirko, executive director of the Ukrainian Council of Gunsmiths, told Radio NV that Ukrainian production of interceptor drones now exceeds the needs of the Defense Forces by a factor of two to three.
"It is specifically with regard to interceptors that our Security and Defense Forces of Ukraine can clearly understand how much they need for the near-term period, because we understand our adversary's capabilities to produce solutions like Shahed, and the mass nature of their attacks over recent years. We study all this, collect it, understand how much we need," Fedirko said in the Radio NV interview.
