The Ukrainian manufacturer of missiles and deep-strike drones aims to bring its own anti-missile defense system to market by the end of 2027. Against the backdrop of a Patriot shortage and limited SAMP/T output, this is shaping a new investment case in the air defense segment.
Fire Point, the manufacturer of the Flamingo cruise missile, is in talks with European companies on the creation of a new air defense system that the company positions as a more affordable alternative to Patriot. According to co-founder and chief designer Denys Shtilerman, the goal is to reduce the cost of intercepting a ballistic missile to below $1 million and to achieve the first such interception by late 2027. Reuters notes that this comes at a time when Patriot is becoming increasingly scarce, while Europe’s SAMP/T is produced in relatively limited volumes.
From an investment perspective, the project economics appear particularly compelling. According to CSIS, a single PAC-3 interceptor costs about $3.7 million, while Fire Point says Patriot often requires two or three missiles to defeat a ballistic target. If the Ukrainian company is indeed able to bring the cost of a single interception below $1 million, this would imply a multiple reduction in combat-use costs and could potentially open up a large export market among countries that cannot quickly obtain Patriot or SAMP/T.
At the same time, Fire Point is not building the system entirely on its own. The company openly says it is looking for partners in radars, guidance systems, and communications, and has named Weibel, Hensoldt, Saab, and Thales among possible technology counterparties. This means the project model is most likely to be not a fully greenfield system, but rather an integrated platform: an in-house interceptor combined with externally sourced critical subsystems. Reuters additionally reports that the future air defense system is expected to use the FP-7 missile, meaning Fire Point is trying to reduce the investment ticket by leveraging existing developments.
Separately, the company is awaiting a decision by the Ukrainian regulator on a transaction involving the sale of 30% of Fire Point for $760 million at a $2.5 billion valuation. However, Reuters says those funds are primarily linked to the space business — a launch terminal project in the UAE and low-earth-orbit satellites — rather than directly to the new air defense program. In other words, the amount of investment specifically required for the anti-missile project has not yet been publicly disclosed.
Based on a modeled estimate using open-source comparables, bringing Fire Point to a tested prototype and first battery could require around $200–600 million. This is not the company’s official budget, but a market inference: CSIS says the United States provided $1.99 billion for the development and procurement of the David’s Sling system in 2006–2020, while as early as 2009 Rafael allocated more than $100 million to Raytheon for the development of the Stunner interceptor and vertical launcher alone. For Fire Point, the lower end could be smaller because it is not building the entire system from scratch and intends to use its own FP-7 and external partner modules.
If the project reaches serial production and an export-ready configuration, its overall capital intensity could easily exceed $1 billion. For reference, the David’s Sling sale to Finland was valued at €317 million, while the proposed PAC-3 MSE package for Saudi Arabia was worth $9 billion. These are different configurations and cannot be compared directly, but they illustrate the scale of contracts in the anti-missile defense segment.
For the investment market, this is one of the most notable Ukrainian defense-tech cases of 2026. Fire Point already has a manufacturing base in long-range drones and missiles, plans to scale Flamingo after launching a new engine and fuel plant in Denmark, and global demand for interceptors continues to grow — to the point that the Pentagon has already announced a seven-year framework agreement aimed at tripling PAC-3 MSE seeker production capacity. If Fire Point manages to bring the system to fruition in 2027, it could become not only a defense product, but also a major export and investment product for Ukraine.
