> While Healey didn’t elaborate on the cost of the interceptor drone, the Center for Strategic and International Studies put the estimated cost of a Shahed at $35,000

The Shaheds are large petrol driven things with ~2000 km range and 20 kg warheads. The interceptors are probably battery powered with a fraction of the weight and range.

This kind of thing https://thedefender.media/en/2025/08/dyki-shershni-showcased...

>Sting interceptor hits 315 km/h, shoots down over 200 Shaheds and Gerberas

>Sting costs about $2,500

Not sure what design the UK will make.

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lolc 2 days ago | parent | next [-]

Wow and Stings are reusable! I thought they would be single use.

Being able to recharge them changes logistics a lot. You can have very mobile teams for defense in depth to decimate swarm attacks.

	▲	tim333 a day ago \| parent [-]
		I'm not sure the Stings are reusable but the Mangusts are.

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tguvot 2 days ago | parent | prev [-]

there are jet powered shaheds with speeds around 600km/h

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tim333 2 days ago | parent [-]

I think Ukraine is working on jet powered interceptors for those. (https://youtu.be/cmQpycW0Y2s?t=170)

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tguvot 2 days ago | parent [-]

interceptors equipped by shotguns.

i see shaheds in this case equipped with ultrasonic sensors to detect anything in range that will trigger "evasive maneuvers".

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tim333 2 days ago | parent [-]

The main virtue of the shaheds is they are fairly cheap and simple so the Russians can send hundreds. If you try making them capable of evasive maneuvers and the like you lose some of that.

The Mangust design is quite interesting

>steered by the pilot until, at around 200 meters (650 feet), its auto-guidance system takes over and autonomously completes the interception. https://www.kyivpost.com/post/57595

Still seems to be a prototype though - not sure they've hit any shaheds.

	▲	tguvot a day ago \| parent [-]
		they are 35k-50k a piece. they have advanced anti jamming capabilities (when ukrainians managed to bring one down in "one piece", they take out this part and reuse it in their drones). upgraded models have nvidia jetson that used for optical targeting. adding a few ultrasonic sensors, wires and writing extra 1000 lines of code not going to change BoM much