PARIS — Saab has announced a low-cost anti-drone missile dubbed Nimbrix, the latest effort in a scramble by defense firms and armed forces globally to develop hard-kill counters for the small flying drones that have become the main lethal threat on the battlefield in Ukraine.
The Swedish company is in discussions with customers and aims for the first deliveries of the missile to counter unmanned aerial systems in 2026, it said in a statement on Thursday. Saab plans to present the fire-and-forget missile at the DSEI UK show in London in September.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine kicked off a drone-innovation race, with both sides now deploying thousands of drones daily that often cost less than US$1,000 each. In response, companies and armed forces are racing to field cost-effective counter measures, from unguided rockets with fragmentation warheads to lasers, air-burst shells and radio-frequency weapons.
“Nimbrix is our answer to the unmanned aerial threats which have escalated in the last few years,” Stefan Öberg, head of Saab’s missile-systems business, said in the statement. “It is cost effective which is critical given the proliferation of UASs on the battlefield.”
Saab designed the missile to minimize costs, including through the use of additive manufacturing and low-cost commercial and military off-the-shelf parts, according to a presentation sheet.
The missile being developed will include an infrared target seeker as well as a high-explosive fragmentation warhead that can be used in air-burst mode against drone swarms, with the goal for a range of up to 5 kilometers with an active seeker for target tracking.
Drone swarms are an evolution of the UAS threat, with both Ukrainian and Russian forces increasingly deploying massed waves of drones to overwhelm enemy defenses. France’s Thales at the Eurosatory show in Paris last year presented an unguided rocket with air-burst warhead specifically designed to defeat swarms.
The ground-based Nimbrix missile can be operated in a stand-alone system with an affordable sensor, including mounted on a vehicle or in a fixed configuration, or as part of a larger air-defense system with existing command and control and sensors, according to Saab.
Rudy Ruitenberg is a Europe correspondent for Defense News. He started his career at Bloomberg News and has experience reporting on technology, commodity markets and politics.
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