Ukraine’s Brave1 says it can down Russia’s Banderol missiles with cruising speed 650 km/h for less than what they cost, and has destroyed at least four

Ukraine says it has found a way to shoot down Russia's Banderol jet missiles for less than the missiles themselves cost. A system from a developer in the Brave1 defense-tech cluster has already destroyed at least four of them, Brave1 said, releasing video of the intercepts.

The point is the price tag, not the kills. The Banderol is built to be cheap for Russia and expensive for Ukraine to stop, forcing Kyiv to spend scarce, costly air-defense missiles on a low-cost weapon. A counter that costs less than the target flips that math back against Russia.

A cluster developer downs four Banderols

The footage Brave1 shared shows a defender in the cluster hitting at least four Banderol missiles.

"The cost of interception is substantially cheaper than the cost of the drone-missiles themselves," the cluster said.

It added that several products capable of countering the Banderol now exist, and that it is scaling the ones that work.

Kronshtadt built the missile to bleed defenses

The S8000 Banderol is a hybrid of a cruise missile and a jet-powered attack drone, made by the sanctioned Russian firm Kronshtadt, which also builds the Orion reconnaissance drone that launches it. It flies at a cruising speed of 520 to 560 km/h and up to 650 km/h at full throttle, and carries a 114.3-kilogram fragmentation-high-explosive warhead, of which 49.5 kilograms is explosive.

The design is built for cheap mass production: it runs on a Chinese hobby turbojet sold online for about $16,000, and Ukrainian media have put the cost of a single Banderol near $100,000, Ukrainska Pravda reported. Russia has used it to strike Odesa, Kharkiv, Kyiv, and Black Sea ports.

Ukraine keeps finding cheap answers

Brave1's system is the newest in a pattern of low-cost counters. In July, Ukrainian troops downed Banderols with Swedish Bofors L70 anti-aircraft guns designed in the late 1940s. The task now is to turn scattered successes into enough deployed systems to blunt a weapon Russia is firing in growing numbers, which is what Brave1 says it is racing to do.