Missiles, for which Ukraine signed a memorandum of joint production with Thales Belgium, will be equipped with a new warhead. It has been specifically designed for effective counter-drone defense.
These are 70mm FZ275 LGR missiles with the FZ123 warhead, as reported by Forces Operations Blog.
This warhead was presented this summer at the Eurosatory exhibition. It consists of an explosive charge and several thousand steel pellets.
The publication notes that the missile, with a range of up to 3,000 meters, will provide Ukrainian forces with an intermediate solution between using large-caliber machine guns to shoot down Russian Shahed/Geran-2 kamikaze drones and saving expensive surface-to-air missiles.
In early November, Ukrainian Minister for Strategic Industries, Herman Smetanin, announced that Thales Belgium would help Ukraine with the joint production of missiles for countering drones.
As part of the memorandum signed between Ukraine and Thales Belgium, the Belgian company will assist Ukraine in organizing the joint production of 70mm missiles.
As Smetanin noted, this cooperation could expand in the future to include the transfer of relevant technologies to Ukraine for the independent production of FZ275 LGR missiles.
