By Yuliia Dysa
KYIV, July 27 (Reuters) - Ukraine wants a prototype for a European anti-ballistic system codenamed Freyja to be ready within the first half of next year, a senior official said, as Kyiv pushes its allies to help deliver a weapon capable of downing Russian missiles.
Davyd Aloian, deputy secretary of Ukraine's National Security and Defence Council, who oversees the Freyja project, said that an international steering committee tasked with estimating the research and development costs was due to convene for the first time soon.
Leaders from 10 European countries, including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, as well as around a dozen defence manufacturers gathered at a summit in Paris two weeks ago to officially launch the anti-ballistic coalition.
"Since we're working within such a tight timeframe, we have an ambitious goal: to have an MVP (minimum viable product) ready by the first half of next year," Aloian said.
"That is a prototype that can already demonstrate its first practical results."
Ukraine is chronically dependent on U.S.-made Patriot air defence systems, which is the only weapon in its arsenal capable of reliably downing Russia's ballistic missiles, which travel at several times the speed of sound.
Supplies of Patriots have been affected by political volatility, low stocks and a lengthy production cycle.
Russia has stepped up its ballistic strikes on the capital Kyiv and southern port hub of Odesa this month, launching dozens of missiles, most of which Ukraine was unable to down due to lack of interceptors.
Ukraine is ready to provide the Freyja project with a launcher and an interceptor missile, which Zelenskiy described this month as just a "matter of testing". The Ukrainian leader has said he hopes to see the system operational within a year.
Kyiv expects its allies to contribute technology, such as modern radars, sensors, and expertise on missile guidance and control electronics. The defence companies that have joined the effort so far include Eurosam - which manufactures the SAMP-T interceptor system - as well as Leonardo, Thales and Saab.
Ukrainian missile and drone manufacturer Fire Point, which developed the Flamingo cruise missile, has said it will be the lead industrial partner on the project. It announced a deal with German defence manufacturer Hensoldt to provide radar for the project last month.
OPEN SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE
Freyja is an attempt to build a lower-cost alternative to the Patriot, which many European countries also rely on. Other air defence systems, such as Franco-Italian SAMP/T and German IRIS-T, have not yet proven capable of downing ballistic missiles.
Zelenskiy compared the Freyja coalition to Lego - slotting together pieces of equipment from defence industry leaders.
Manufacturers have been tasked with developing a framework for a system with interchangeable parts, Aloian explained.
"The overall logic of this system is that it's an open architecture," he said. "So if Denmark says 'I want the Freyja system with a Danish-made Weibel radar,' that's fine. If Sweden says they want the Saab system, that's no problem either."
Setting up a special body, potentially a fund, to channel all contributions and to ensure stable financing for the project is one of the ideas being considered, Aloian said.
He also hopes that businesses being directly involved in the project alongside governments will help to reduce red tape.
"The coalition should be practical rather than political."
(Reporting by Yuliia Dysa; Editing by Daniel Flynn and Alexandra Hudson)
