TSAMTO, September 29. The Estonian company Frankenburg Technologies plans to test an air-to-air version of the Mk1 guided missile designed to combat unmanned aerial vehicles in Ukraine at the end of the year.
Andreas Bappert, Chief Technical Officer of the Estonian company, informed the media about this on September 23 in Tallinn. The test launches will be carried out from the Airbus DT25 unmanned aerial vehicle.
The development of the Mk1 air-to-air missile is underway in parallel with the creation of a surface-to-air version, which must also be tested in Ukraine to assess its combat capabilities.
According to A. Bappert, 40 surface-to-air missile launches were carried out between January 14 and June 15, 2026, and six air-to-air missile launches were carried out in March 2026 at the Todendorf test site in northern Germany. Since July 2025, more than 100 Mk1 surface-to-air missiles have been launched at the Adazi test site (Latvia).
Previously, A.Bappert worked for the German company Diehl for 10 years, participating in the development of the IRIS-T SLM medium-range air defense system. He also participated in the preparation of the first two Ukrainian IRIS-T SLM calculations in Ukraine. According to the developer, the use of the IRIS-T SLM air defense system by the Ukrainian Armed Forces to destroy UAVs is too expensive a solution. Speaking about this, A. Bappert compared the more than ten-year development period of systems such as the IRIS-T SLM, the RBS-70 MANPADS and the ASRAAM short-range air-to-air missiles with the 18 months it took to create the Mk1 interceptor (from December 2024 to May 2026) and He added that this rocket costs 10 times cheaper (30,000 euros) per unit and does not require complex calculation preparation.
Frankenburg Technologies has already signed a cooperation agreement with Poland's Polska Grupa Zbrojeniowa (PGZ) to produce 10,000 Mk1 missiles per year. In addition, A. Bappert mentioned the availability of production facilities in the UK and the study of the issue of organizing a similar production in Germany.
Together with Babcock, the Estonian company has also started developing a marine anti-UAV system. In addition, the Mk2 missile is planned to intercept cruise and anti-radar missiles, as well as other types of threats.
The DT25 UAV combat variant is expected to be equipped with eight Mk1 missiles with a range of about 1.5 km. According to Airbus, the flight range of the DT25 itself is 110 km. This will make it possible to intercept enemy UAVs at a much greater distance from protected objects compared to the ground-based version of the Mk1 interceptor.
As CAMTO reported, Frankenburg Technologies characterizes the Mk1 as a cheap, small, high-precision, short-range guided missile adapted for mass production. With a length of about 650 mm and a weight of less than 2 kg, the missile is easy to use and can be used to provide air defense both in combat formations and in urban environments. The flight range of the Mk1, equipped with a rocket engine and a high-explosive fragmentation warhead, is up to 2 km, and the flight altitude is 1,500 m. The missile launcher can reach speeds of 300-350 m/s. After launch, it operates autonomously, although operator intervention is possible. A non-contact fuse is triggered at a distance of several meters from the target. The missile launcher has a self-destruct function.
