“We have everything for the FP-9, which can reach Moscow, except the engine,” Fire Point’s chief designer and co‑founder, Denys Shtilerman, told the Ukrainian YouTube channel Pressing in a rare on‑camera interview.
Denys Shtilerman on engine testing and the flight timetable
Shtilerman said the FP‑9 has finished all major development work except its solid‑fuel engine and that “the engine will be tested this month,” with flight tests to follow after a successful validation. A day later he told Reuters Fire Point remained on track to begin flight trials “over the summer,” with battlefield tests expected by autumn. Those milestones -- engine validation, flight trials, then battlefield trials -- form the company’s stated path toward operational assessment.
FP‑9 specifications as published by Fire Point
Fire Point’s product page and Shtilerman’s statements set out clear performance claims: the FP‑9 is a ground‑launched ballistic missile sized roughly 9.5 m long and 1.1 m in diameter, designed to carry an 800 kg warhead to about 855 km. The company lists a maximum speed of 2,200 m/s, a peak altitude of 70 km, a maximum flight time of 520 seconds and a claimed accuracy of 20 m. The FP‑9 is described as larger than Russia’s Iskander‑M, which the company cites as 7.2 m long and 0.95 m in diameter.
Fire Point’s industrial leap: building a propellant plant from scratch
To reach the FP‑9’s figures, Fire Point says it constructed a solid‑fuel propellant plant from the ground up — a capability the company reports Ukraine’s defence industry previously lacked. Shtilerman told Pressing the facility took more than a year to complete and that Fire Point developed its own propellant formulations, cure cycles, and quality verification methods without access to Soviet or Russian technical documentation after a promised library of Soviet missile blueprints was never compiled despite commitments from two successive defence ministers.
Project Freya, the FP‑7 family, and the Hensoldt memorandum
The FP‑9 sits alongside a smaller FP‑7 in a ballistic missile programme Fire Point unveiled at the MSPO defence exhibition in September 2025. The FP‑7, built on the airframe of the Soviet‑era 48N6 interceptor used in S‑400 systems, completed its first controlled test flight in February 2026 and has been positioned by Fire Point as roughly half the cost of the American Army Tactical Missile System. Fire Point has adapted the FP‑7 airframe into the FP‑7.x interceptor at the heart of Project Freya; the company signed a memorandum of understanding with Germany’s Hensoldt for the TRML‑4D radar that would supply the interceptor’s targeting data. Shtilerman told Reuters Fire Point could deliver interceptors by the end of the year “if European governments move quickly enough on the surrounding approvals.”
What this means for the Ministry of Defence, Germany’s Hensoldt, and European governments
- The Ministry of Defence (Ukraine): Fire Point expects the FP‑9 to receive Ministry of Defence codification in 2026, the formal approval step Fire Point says would clear the missile for operational use; the ministry’s decisions on codification will hinge on the forthcoming engine test, flight trials, and any validation data.
- Germany’s Hensoldt: the TRML‑4D memorandum links Hensoldt to Project Freya’s targeting chain; Hensoldt’s radar would feed the FP‑7.x interceptor data if the partnership and approvals proceed.
- European governments: according to Shtilerman, rapid approvals by European governments are a condition for Fire Point to meet its stated delivery ambitions for interceptors by year‑end.
Shtilerman has also framed the FP‑9’s role economically and operationally: he argues ballistic missiles “only make economic sense at longer ranges,” contrasting his cost estimates for a 300 km ballistic shot with a modified FP‑2 drone, and asserting that at roughly 855 km “no cruise missile in Ukraine’s current arsenal can cover that distance while surviving the air defences ringing Moscow,” leaving a ballistic trajectory as the only viable option for that range band. That declared range therefore places both Moscow and St. Petersburg within the FP‑9’s operating envelope, per the company’s specifications.
The immediate, verifiable next steps are narrow and concrete: Shtilerman’s scheduled engine test, the flight trials he says are planned for summer, and the battlefield tests slated for autumn. If those tests succeed and if the Ministry of Defence proceeds with codification in 2026, Fire Point’s FP‑9 would move from company claim to an item under formal military approval; if any step stalls, the schedule and the operational promises tied to it will be the facts to watch.
Source: Quwa — Fire Point’s FP‑9 Ballistic Missile Awaits Only an Engine Test Before First Flight
