Ukraine Has Pay-Per-Kill System for Shaheds, Gets 40,000 Interceptors

Ukraine is ready to obtain 40,000 interceptor drones in January, thanks partly to a reward system that pays corporations for each kill scored in opposition to a Russian Shahed, the nation’s protection minister mentioned.

Mykhailo Fedorov mentioned on Tuesday that Kyiv had rolled out a program inviting protection corporations to check their small interceptor drones in Ukraine, paying them $20,000 for every Shahed drone their product destroyed.

“On the time, nobody believed in it,” Fedorov mentioned at a press briefing. “However now, by this month, 40,000 interceptors are anticipated to be delivered to the navy.”

Typically wanting munitions and weapons, Ukraine invitations protection corporations from all over the world — although mostly NATO countries — to check their merchandise on the battlefield.

Fedorov, who was appointed protection minister final week, mentioned the cost program had centered on the Chernihiv space, which sits between Kyiv and Russia’s western border. Lengthy-range assault drones launched from that border should fly over Chernihiv to succeed in the Ukrainian capital, and the area thus sees a number of the heaviest Shahed flight visitors.

Interceptor drones in Ukraine are typically small, first-person-view drones designed to fly at excessive velocity to catch Russia’s Gerans, delta-wing explosive-carrying drones carefully primarily based on the Iranian Shahed.

The commonest kind of Geran that Ukraine faces can cruise at roughly 6,500 toes and fly at as much as 115 mph.

As a result of Russia can launch a whole lot of those at a time, resource-strapped Ukrainians have prioritized holding the price of interceptor drones as little as doable. A typical one prices roughly a number of thousand US {dollars}.

Fedorov mentioned on Tuesday that Ukraine’s navy had been actively wanting into interceptors since a minimum of February 2025. The know-how has developed quickly during the last 12 months, with Ukrainian corporations nonetheless experimenting with designs initially of 2025 and now scaling up manufacturing for mass manufacturing.

Receiving 40,000 interceptors a month would imply that Ukraine can deploy greater than 1,000 of them a day — an preliminary manufacturing aim set by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

In a separate press briefing on Monday, Zelenskyy repeated that his nation was now capable of produce about 1,000 interceptors per day.

“However that isn’t sufficient,” he mentioned. “As a result of, frankly talking, our interceptor drones have already outpaced the variety of our operators.”

Zelenskyy mentioned that Fedorov and Ukraine’s chief commander, Oleksandr Syrskyi, have been assigned with recruiting, coaching, and deploying extra troops who can fly interceptor drones.