Estonian defense company Frankenburg Technologies will begin testing its anti-aircraft missiles in Ukraine next year.
CEO Kusti Salm said Thursday an agreement is in place for the company to start testing its Mark 1 anti-aircraft missile, which uses artificial intelligence to shoot down drones. “The technology is promising, and we will start testing it in Ukraine in the new year,” he told Estonian Public Broadcasting’s website.
The missile can hit targets flying at altitudes of up to 2 kilometers (1.2 miles)—the altitude that the Iranian drone Shahed-131 (Russian version Geran-1) and Shahed-136 (Geran-2) typically fly at, Salm told defense intelligence website Jane’s.
On a Ukraine battlefield, a self-propelled howitzer is used in a combat mission in 2023. An Estonian defense company said Thursday it will start testing its Mark 1 anti-aircraft missile, which uses artificial intelligence to…
On a Ukraine battlefield, a self-propelled howitzer is used in a combat mission in 2023. An Estonian defense company said Thursday it will start testing its Mark 1 anti-aircraft missile, which uses artificial intelligence to shoot down drones, in Ukraine.
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Salm also said he believes the demand for new weapons will continue, even if Ukraine and Russia reach a ceasefire agreement. “There is going to be a new and much larger war in Europe,” he told Bloomberg.
Newsweek has contacted the defense ministries in Ukraine, Russia and Estonia via email for comment.
Salm’s announcement comes as the Russia-Ukraine war is entering a new phase. A new Donald Trump administration raises speculation about how much support the U.S. will continue to offer Ukraine. Its president, Volodymyr Zelensky, has spoken about his desire to retake Ukraine territory occupied by Russia through diplomatic means.
Although he has long insisted that the war will end only after Kyiv has retaken all land captured by Russia, he recently told Japan’s Kyodo News that it would be too difficult for Ukraine to take back some territory, including Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014.
“Our army lacks the strength to do that, that is true. We do have to find diplomatic solutions,” Zelensky said.
But he also said that Ukraine’s NATO membership would have to be certain because such diplomatic steps could be taken “only when we know that we are strong enough.”
Estonia, which joined NATO in March 2004, has recently told the alliance that members should give Ukraine money instead of troops.
Last month, Estonia’s defense minister, Hanno Pevkur, told The Hill: “Ukrainians can handle all of this, when we can deliver all what they need.”
He also said that Ukrainian production of howitzers, which is up to seven times the rate of France’s, showed Kyiv’s capacity to produce military equipment at scale. “But it only has $15 billion to spend, while its capacity is about $30 billion,” Pevkur said.
He also said Ukraine’s surprise incursion into Russia’s Kursk region, launched on August 6, was hampered by a lack of equipment and firepower to push further. To develop Kyiv’s military industry, allies must “give them money—it’s a simple message,” he added.