Ukrainian Fire Point Establishes In-House Production of Engines for Long-Range Drones

The Ukrainian company Fire Point has established in-house production of more than 97% of the engine components used in its FP-1/2 long-range strike drones.

Iryna Terekh, the company’s technical director, stated this in an interview with Xavier Tytelman, editor-in-chief of the French Air & Cosmos magazine.

Terekh said that despite the company’s ambitions, it cannot yet be fully independent in terms of expertise and materials, but is seeking to minimize imports and rely as much as possible on domestic production.

“We are highly dependent on partners for financing, intelligence, experience in building the broader ecosystem, and political support at various levels. But in terms of competencies and equipment, we are trying to do as much as possible on our own,” she said.

According to Terekh, at the initial production stage, the company relied entirely on imported engines and still uses them when necessary, but it soon became clear that this would remain a bottleneck for scaling output. As a result, the company decided to pursue full localization of production.

At present, 80 of the 82 engine components used in its long-range drones, more than 97.5%, are produced in-house. Fire Point has mastered the full production cycle, including casting, machining, milling, fitting, and final assembly, all of which are carried out internally.

“Just to give you an idea: even the silencers are now produced locally, because nowhere in the world has the capacity to supply 150, 200, and soon 400 units per day. And local production no longer costs €400 per unit, but just over €70 — a result of economies of scale,” Tytelman said in his report.

According to the company’s technical director, Fire Point is currently producing more than 200 long-range drones per day. The cost of the FP-1 is significantly lower than that of Russian Shahed drones and stands at about $58,000. Based on Tytelman’s remarks, further growth in output is expected.

In November, Ihor Fedirko, executive director of the Ukrainian Defence Manufacturers’ Council, told Militarnyi that two Ukrainian companies had established a full engine production cycle for long-range drones.

According to Fedirko, while domestic engine production does not yet fully meet demand, it represents an important step forward. Once a production technology is in place, it can be adapted to different requirements.

“We have at least two companies that manufacture engines for their deep-strike drones entirely on their own. That includes injection moulding, electroplating — absolutely everything is done in-house. This is a major achievement,” he said.

At the same time, he noted that Ukrainian manufacturers remain heavily dependent on foreign electronic components, despite localizing the production of other parts.

“But we have a problem: we are completely dependent on so-called deep-tech components — the element base itself, such as transistors, resistors and microchips. We do not produce these and remain dependent on external supplies,” he said.