Perenir Autonomous Technology, the manufacturer of Merops UAV interceptor, has reached a cooperation with Twenty-Four Industrial Group and will start production of this anti-UAV equipment in Germany.This weapon has been tested in actual combat on the battlefields of Ukraine and Iran.Merops drone interceptor, a local production agreement in Germany has been finalized. This is also Europe’s latest move to leverage Ukraine’s defense technological achievements.
Ukrainian soldier Anatoly is installing a warhead on an AS3 interceptor drone. The Merops interceptor will be produced in Europe by Perenier Autonomous Technologies in partnership with Munich-based XXIV Industries, according to the Munich enterprise XXIV Industries.
Merops was developed by Perenir's independent technology; the company received investment from former Google CEO and billionaire Eric Schmidt and recruited Ukrainian engineers to participate in research and development. This interceptor destroys target drones by detonating them at close range. It has been widely used in the Ukrainian battlefield and has a good reputation.
According to an announcement from 24 Industries, Merops will be put into production in Europe by Perenier and Munich-based 24 Industries.
A spokesman for Perenir said that the company has mass-produced large quantities of Merops systems in Ukraine and many places in Europe; this equipment has successfully intercepted more than 4,000 Russian drones in Ukraine.
According to the user, Merops can autonomously search for incoming drones through radio waves, radar, and target infrared thermal imaging signals; when it is about one mile away from the target, it uses artificial intelligence to lock the target, and then detonates it at close range to destroy it.
Other user data shows that Merops can fly at a speed of more than 180 miles per hour and the maximum flight altitude is about 16,000 feet.
Ukraine has set a number of industry precedents in the field of drone operations: including maritime unmanned vessels that can attack Russian warships, technology that relies on artificial intelligence to achieve coordinated swarm attacks by drone swarms, and large-scale application of drone countermeasures and interception equipment such as Merops.
In March this year, the U.S. Army urgently deployed Merops to the Middle East to prevent Iranian drone attacks.
This cooperation with this American company highlights a major trend: Europe has clearly led the United States in introducing and installing Ukrainian self-developed and military testing equipment that have been proven in actual combat.
Ukrainian President Zelensky and relevant people involved in the negotiations between Ukraine and the United States admitted that Washington has been slow to fully utilize Ukraine’s drone technology advantages. Currently, Ukrainian drone companies are negotiating with their American counterparts to build factories in the United States for production.
At this stage, Ukrainian military industrial enterprises have achieved mass production in Germany, Poland, and the United Kingdom, and European countries such as Denmark and Norway are also about to introduce production lines and put them into production.
Citing earlier reports and statements by US military officials in March: the cost of a single Merops anti-drone interceptor is less than $10,000; as production capacity increases, the cost of a single unit is expected to drop to about $7,000.
Uzbek-U.S. relations have become tense since Trump began his second term, but the two sides have been negotiating an agreement to localize the production of drones since at least September last year, and negotiations are still ongoing.
According to people familiar with the matter, the U.S. Department of Defense issued a list of 12 Ukrainian drones to a number of large U.S. military-industrial companies last year, seeking cooperation in imitation and joint production, including 10 aerial drones and 2 maritime drones.
Eliot Cohen, a scholar at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said:
“We don’t want to admit a reality: Ukraine is now almost a global leader in both offensive and defensive aspects of drones.”