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Ukraine Develops New Nika Missile to Shoot Down Jet-Powered Shahed Drones
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Ukraine has developed a new small missile called Nika to intercept jet-powered Shahed drones, while additional anti-drone turrets are being deployed in Kyiv and the surrounding region, Suspilne reported on October 4.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced the new interceptor while speaking with journalists ahead of talks with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
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The new systems come as Ukraine works to improve interception rates against faster jet-powered drones. Zelenskyy previously reported that Ukraine was intercepting around 85% to 92% of conventional Shahed drones, while the interception rate for jet-powered UAVs stood at approximately 50% to 60%.
“We now have a new small missile, Nika, against jet-powered Shaheds,” Zelenskyy stated. “The Germans and we are responding positively. There will be testing. For now, we are looking at what could prove successful.”
Zelenskyy also reported a successful test of Spear, a new Ukrainian-German drone interceptor.
“It is important that today we heard about the test of our new interceptor, the German-Ukrainian Spear interceptor,” Zelenskyy added. “The test was successful.”
Ukraine is also expanding the use of specialized turrets against jet-powered drones. Zelenskyy reported that more than 12 had already been installed in Kyiv, with another eight due to be deployed across the Kyiv region.
“There will be dozens of these turrets at different facilities, and we will defend ourselves as best we can,” Zelenskyy stated.
The expansion of Ukraine’s air defenses comes as Russian drone and missile strikes continue hitting Ukraine’s critical civilian infrastructure. On October 2, a Russian strike set fire to a warehouse belonging to one of Ukraine’s largest pharmaceutical distributors near Kyiv, the fifth reported attack on pharmaceutical storage infrastructure in a month.
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