alt Hacker NewsAnd interceptors are more expensive than Shaheds. A $100k interceptor (guessing here) to shoot a $10k Shahed can be an acceptable deal for the side launching the Shaheds.
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A $100k interceptor to save a $10 million critical facility against a $10k Shahed is a bargain. You saved $9.9 million dollars.
Interceptor economics makes more sense when you reason about the bigger picture. The point is to buy you time to remove the supply chain and the stocks so that you're not trading 1:1 forever. It's a stop-gap, or at least it's supposed to be.
However that only works in a war where you have air and informational superiority. In a peer-like conflict with information asymmetries and air parity (no way to remove the opponent's industrial base), such as Ukraine-Russia, the intercept economics are less appealing.
Reusable interceptor has BOM of 3000$, 15000$ sales price. Wanted to start this project with an ex-colleague, but he bought old house and is stuck trying to make it livable.
Anyone interested in cooperation? I am hardware and math guy.
Interceptor in this case refers to reusable aircraft. They are sending up cheap to operate prop planes to intercept Shaheds in Ukraine now.
Sending up a plane that costs $500/hour to operate to take down a few Shaheds an hour works out really well.
YouTube has plenty of videos of these guys going up and just shooting them out of the air.