Thales Belgium has created an inexpensive 70 mm rocket fitted with an airburst FZ123 warhead to defeat Shahed-style drones and similar threats; an undisclosed number have already been shipped to Ukraine. The FZ123 contains thousands of small steel pellets driven by roughly 2 lb (900 g) of explosive. When it detonates it produces a fragmentation cloud about 80 ft (24 m) across, sufficient to destroy or heavily damage NATO Class II (medium tactical) and Class III (larger medium/high-altitude) drones, and to disrupt swarms. The laser-guided 70 mm rockets can be fired from multiple platforms — for example L3Harris’s VAMPIRE truck-mounted launchers and modified Mi-8 helicopters — and require continuous laser illumination until impact; if the laser is lost the rocket will home on the last known target for five seconds before switching to ballistic flight, according to Olivier Heuschen, Thales’ head of strategy and marketing for vehicles and tactical systems. An unguided 70 mm round can also carry the FZ123 airburst warhead. Thales Belgium reportedly manufactures about 30,000 unguided 70 mm rockets per year and could raise production to 60,000 with extra shifts if suppliers keep up. The company declined to reveal the price of the FZ123-armed rocket; the munition is said to be pricier than some Ukrainian drone interceptors (which run roughly $500–$5,000) but remains far cheaper and faster to produce than conventional missiles.
