President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced that a meeting of partners of the anti-ballistic coalition will take place in France in the near future. The meeting will discuss the project initiated by Ukraine for protection against ballistic threats, Freyja. The Head of State announced this during a conversation with journalists, reports a UNN correspondent.
Zelenskyy called the project European, but under the chairmanship of Ukraine, since it is our country that initiated the creation of an anti-ballistic shield that can cover the sky not only over Ukraine but also over other European states.
The President noted that Ukraine is capable of implementing such a project independently, but it would take years – with European partners who can share technologies, the project can be implemented faster.
Our first meeting in this direction will be in France. It will happen in the near future. We will definitely announce this publicly. Our task was to gather leaders, gather companies, gather everyone together and present the relevant project for the production of a joint European anti-ballistic project called Freyja. Present it to countries that can help Ukraine make this project very quickly. That is, we can do it ourselves, but it will take years. That is too long, but now we can do it very quickly thanks to such an anti-ballistic coalition
Zelenskyy clarified that the meeting at which the project implementation plan will be presented will take place in the coming days.
If the leaders, their production capabilities, their companies support Freyja, then Freyja will start living in the near future. This is, honestly, goal number one – anti-ballistics. And Freyja can help Ukraine first of all. We will then cover the sky of Ukraine with our own capabilities. And also, importantly, we will share this idea – Freyja - with all partners, primarily Europeans who helped Ukraine during this war. I think this is a very winning idea. God willing, the partners will support it, God willing, our manufacturers will succeed in all this
As the President noted, he set the task for Ukrainian arms manufacturers to create a cheaper analogue of the Patriot, which could be mass-produced.
Currently, the Ukrainian arms manufacturer Fire Point has created the FP-7.x interceptor missile, which has already been tested at maximum accelerations and maneuvers it can perform to intercept ballistics. The cost of this missile is about 700 thousand dollars per unit compared to 3.8 million dollars for one American missile for the Patriot.
Pan-European anti-ballistic shield – who supported the FREYJA project?30.06.26, 13:42
The Pan-European anti-ballistic shield Freyja was immediately conceived as one that would unite European partners. As stated by the co-founder and chief designer of Fire Point, Denys Shtilerman, the key difference of the Freyja project is its independence from external control. He explained that modern Western air defense systems often operate in a closed architecture format, when the supplier country or manufacturer, in fact, retains control over critical elements of the system. It is expected that the project architecture will be implemented in such a way that new partner countries can easily join it.
Representatives of various European countries have already expressed interest in the joint implementation of such a large-scale plan. In particular, agreements have already been officially signed between the defense ministers of Ukraine and Germany. As noted by Shtilerman, these agreements open the way to obtaining technical documentation for various components of the future anti-ballistic system.
In addition, Fire Point recently signed an agreement with the German radar manufacturer Hensoldt. From open sources, it is also known that besides German long-range detection radars, the system will likely also include an illumination and guidance radar Weibel GFTR-2100/48 or Leonardo KRONOS Land. The command post is expected to be based on the Norwegian Kongsberg Fire Distribution Center. One of the key features of the system will be its open architecture and the use of Network Access Nodes modules, which will allow the integration of additional solutions and components.
Data exchange between all elements of the system will be carried out via the tactical Link 16 channel, standardized according to STANAG 5516. It is this protocol that should ensure the integration of Freyja into the existing air defense system of Ukraine and other European countries.