Frankenburg prepares for C-UAS missile production

Frankenburg Technologies' Mk I C-UAS missile displayed at its offices in Tallinn, Estonia, on 22 September. (Erlend Štaub)

Frankenburg Technologies is rolling out its Mk I counter-unmanned aircraft system (C-UAS) missile as it prepares for its production in two countries that it did not identify.

Frankenburg CEO Kusti Salm told international journalists including Janes visiting his company in Tallinn on 22 September that the “smallest guided missile in the world that nobody knows how to shoot down” had been rolled out in all three Baltic states and was being rolled out in Poland and Denmark, as is planned for Germany. In addition to the Baltic states, Frankenburg is established in Denmark, Germany, Poland, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom.

Salm said the missile is 10 times cheaper than the Stinger manportable air-defence system (MANPADS) that was designed to counter helicopters, whereas the threat to Ukraine was posed by low- and slow-flying unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) that Mk I is designed to neutralise. The missile's primary targets are long-range attack UAVs such as the Shahed; reconnaissance and low-flying UAVs such as the Orlan, ZALA, Supercam, and slow/small UAVs; and loitering munitions such as the Lancet, Mavic, and first-person-view (FPV) UAVs.

Frankenburg describes the Mk I as a high-precision, compact, ultra short-range air-defence missile driven by artificial intelligence (AI). With a length of around 650 mm and weight less than 2 kg, the missile is lightweight and easy to deploy and designed to provide rapid-response air defence in both urban and front-line environments.