By Stefan Korshak

Copyright kyivpost

The Belgian arms giant Thales has developed and delivered to Ukraine a mission-specific rocket warhead to help Ukrainian air defense forces battle against nightly attacks by dozens and sometimes hundreds of Russian long-range kamikaze drones, Ukrainian defense news reports on Thursday said.

Thales Belgium ’s FZ123 munition is laser-guided and packed with close to a kilo of high explosives and thousands of ball bearings designed to detonate when in proximity of a flying object.

Fitted to the common 70mm rocket, a weapon used for years by Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) ground vehicles, helicopters and attack aircraft, the newly-developed warhead creates a 25-meter sphere cloud of shotgun-like buckshot capable of reliably knocking down small- and medium-sized attack drones.

Ukrainian Air Force Mi-8 helicopters currently are flying intercept operations armed with 70mm rockets fitted with the FZ123 warhead, the US-based Business insider reported. The military information publication TheWarZone in a Wednesday report said most probably the Ukrainian helicopters will work in pairs with one air crew pointing a laser to guide the rocket towards an intercepted Shahed drone, and a second air crew firing the weapon in a “buddy” tactic.

AFU ground forces have operated Thales-produced, laser-guided 70mm rockets fired from ground launchers, usually from HUMMV vehicles equipped with a launch rig called VAMPIRE (Vehicle-Agnostic Modular Palletized ISR Rocket Equipment) since Sept. 2023.

The US Department of Defense had transferred 14 VAMPIRE systems to the AFU by Dec. 2023. Trump’s White House cut Ukraine off from direct arms assistance in Feb. 2025, but since then has allowed limited transfers provided European states pay for the weaponry with a markup. Kyiv since then has sought alternate weapons and ammunition sources to American arms deliveries where possible.

By design, a NATO-standard 70mm rocket fitted with the Belgian FZ123 warhead would function normally fired the made-in-USA VAMPIRE launch system, possibly giving the AFU a source of effective anti-aircraft rockets to replace the reload stream shut down by the US.

On Oct. 4 Greek media reported a major deal had been signed between Athens and Prague for the transfer of thousands of old 70mm rockets slated to be retired by the Greek military, but instead sold to the Czech Republic which, thanks to NATO nation funding, would hand the rockets over to Ukraine. Potentially, the Greek rocket deal would give the AFU thousands of 70mm rocket boosters suitable to be fitted with the advanced FZ123 warheads.

Ukraine’s hard-pressed air defense command has deployed a smorgasbord of systems to fight encroaching Shahed kamikaze drones ranging from relatively advanced F-16 fighter jets hunting down the Russian aircraft in the sky, to highly-effective Germany-donated anti-aircraft cannon and even-more-effective but expensive Norwegian and US-made anti-aircraft missiles firing from the ground.

Other tactics have included Ukrainian attack helicopters pressed into the unfamiliar role as air interceptors, hand-held surface-to-air missiles fired by infantry deployed around a likely target, to squads of pickup trucks rigged with heavy machine guns and crewed by National Guard members.

In late 2024 and in 2025, Ukrainian Air Force cargo planes and even civilian crop dusters, and their pilots, have taken to the air to attack the Russian kamikaze drones by catching up with them and firing on them with a shotgun pointed out of a side window.

On Oct. 7 the news agency Euromaidanpress profiled the crew of a “puddle jumper” An-28 twin-engine passenger plane reportedly operated by the Ukrainian air force, with a kill score of 59 Russian aircraft, including 49 Shahed-type drones. Ukrainian media published an unauthenticated image of an An-28 repainted military gray and with kill silhouettes on the fuselage.

Russia’s Iran-designed Shahed drone is a batwing-shaped, propeller-driven aircraft comparable in size to a small automobile, and flying at relatively low speeds. Sent into the air from launch rails as much as 600 km distant, the Shahed drone typically carries a payload of 50-75 kg. of high explosive, and less often warheads designed to set fires or injure people with fragments.

Russia has launched Shahed drone waves against Ukraine almost nightly since early 2023, sending 50-150 unmanned aircraft in routine attacks and more than 600 in a major strike. Although the Kremlin has insisted it only attacks military targets, more often Russian Shaheds hit high-rise apartment buildings or private homes. In a typical attack Ukrainian air defenses usually claim they manage to destroy or decoy away from strike routes 75-80 percent of the Shaheds Russian forces launch.

The bloodiest confirmed Shahed strike of the war took place on Jan. 30 when two drones struck a five-story residential building in Sumy, Ukraine, killing nine civilians and injuring thirteen, statements from Ukraine’s State Emergency Service and local authorities said.

During October meetings with G7 countries on Russian sanctions planning Serhiy Kyslitsa, the First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs in comments published by western media said the Russian Federation uses at least three different models of Shahed, each of which would be impossible to manufacture without regular deliveries of foreign made components reaching Russia in evasion of sanctions.

The Shahed assembled under license by Russia at a newly-built plant in Tartarstan is the kamikaze drone most dependent on foreign components, with 120 parts from China and Taiwan, and 100 from the US. Shaheds manufactured in the heart of Russians arm manufacturing, in the city Izhevsk, uses about 112 imported parts (around 40 each from the US, China and Taiwan equally), he said.

A Shahed built in Iran for Russian use against Ukraine uses 105 imported components including 40 from the US, predominantly in the aircraft’s navigation system, Kyslitsa said. Russia in September launched 7,313 drones of various types against Ukraine, he said.

According to data published by Ukraine national military intelligence agency HUR, foreign-manufactured parts for Shahed drones most commonly electronics for communications and navigation but, the aircraft also are often equipped with major components like engines and control surfaces Russian industry is unable to produce.

US manufacturers listed by HUR as found to have produced parts used in Russian Shahed drones striking Ukrainian territory include AMTEL, AMD, Texas Instruments, Microchip Technology, Analog Devices, SPANSION, Pulse Electronics Corporation, Infineon Technologies, Monolithic Power Systems, Nvidia, ON Semiconductor, Integrated Silicon Solution and Marvell Technology Group. The US producer most preferred by Russian Shahed manufacturers is Texas Instruments, that Ukrainian intelligence data said.