Dorozvidka #83: Starshield, Nova Post’s private air defence, salo on Fire Point drones, “Magyar” on exports and Zelensky on Freyja

In this Dorozvidka:

• Starshield speeds in Ukraine are restored: the consequences of ten days of restrictions;
• Nova Poshta has implemented a private air defence project: it already has downed Shaheds to its name;
• Fire Point: “Yes, sometimes we use salo”;
• Unmanned Systems Forces Commander Robert “Madyar” Brovdi called for exporting military ecosystems;
• Zelensky: Ukraine has done its part of the Freyja anti-ballistic project.

Starshield speeds in Ukraine are restored: the consequences of ten days of restrictions

On 24 October, Ukraine’s Defence Minister Yevhenii Khmara said the Ministry of Defence’s monitoring systems are recording the restoration of Starshield speeds. “We are recording speeds above 400 km/h, and the connection is stable,” he said.

This followed 10 days of Starshield operating at a limited speed, which Defender covered in previous Dorozvidkas. Ukrainian troops first recorded the restriction on the night of 14 October. According to Ukrainian officials, drones then began losing connection to the system at speeds of around 64 km/h. Within a few days, the threshold speed rose to 161 km/h, but it was fully restored only on 24 October.

The New York Times, among others, has written about the problems this caused. A Ukrainian commander told the NYT how dozens of his strike drones were flying towards Russian military targets when the video signal from all of them suddenly dissolved into noise because of the Starshield restrictions. As a result, many drones simply fell, and his unit lost more than a million dollars’ worth of weapons. Because of these failures, the commander had to halt almost all operations for three days, including strikes on Russian command posts and fuel hubs.

On 28 October, Volodymyr Zelensky also spoke about the consequences of the restrictions. According to him, the Starshield restrictions stopped the operation of Bars jet-powered interceptor drones.

Nova Poshta has implemented a private air defence project: it already has downed Shaheds to its name

Nova Poshta has implemented a private air defence project and already has downed Russian strike drones to its name. Nova group co-owner Viacheslav Klymov said this during a speech at the 12th Kyiv International Economic Forum, Interfax-Ukraine reports.

“We are one of the few companies that has implemented this project. I don’t want to disclose the numbers to you, but we have Shahed shootdowns,” Klymov said. He stressed the importance of further developing private air defence projects and noted that business can take on functions that, before the full-scale invasion, were considered the exclusive responsibility of the state.

Unmanned Systems Forces Commander Robert “Magyar” Brovdi called for exporting military ecosystems

Ukraine should open up the possibility of exporting not only finished drones but entire technology ecosystems and unique combat experience. Unmanned Systems Forces Commander Robert “Magyar” Brovdi expressed this view during a speech at the 13th Kyiv International Economic Forum, LIGA.net reports. According to “Magyar”, this should become a strategic national interest and a future budget-generating industry for the state.

The USF commander noted that Ukraine’s main competitive advantage lies not in the hardware itself, but in the system of continuous interaction between developers and the military built on the battlefield. “Magyar” added that the state may be late in reaching foreign markets, since other countries are already starting to capitalise on Ukrainian know-how, having partial access to data on drone use.

In Brovdi’s view, foreign partners should buy a comprehensive product: technology, the “recipes” for its use, and the personnel’s competencies.

Fire Point: “Yes, sometimes we use salo”

Ukrainian drone and missile maker Fire Point said it sometimes uses salo (cured pork fat) to protect drone parts from icing. “At around −20°C, drone parts freeze over and batteries lose charge faster. An ordinary piece of salo helps save the situation: a thin layer protects sensitive components from the cold,” the company says on its Telegram channel.

Zelensky: Ukraine has done its part of the Freyja anti-ballistic project

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky shared updates on the European Freyja ballistic missile defence system while speaking to journalists. He said work on the project continues, but the situation calls for speeding up the process.

“As for the Freyja anti-ballistic project, Ukraine has done what it needed to do. What the partners have to do, with 10 countries taking part, is in progress,” Zelensky said.

He noted that the project was discussed with French President Emmanuel Macron, among other things. Norway is also one of the key partners in Freyja. Zelensky stressed that the system’s development needs to be accelerated.

“People have worked on such systems for decades. We want it very fast, because there is no time,” he said.

The Freyja ballistic missile defence system is meant to combine Ukrainian missile technology with European radars, sensors and control systems. Eurosam, which makes the SAMP/T system, along with Leonardo, Thales, and Saab, has already joined the project.

The project’s leading industrial partner is the Ukrainian company Fire Point. The company announced an agreement with German defence company HENSOLDT to supply a radar for the system.