Fire Point explained why it decided not to include a kill switch in its weapons
The Ukrainian defense company Fire Point deliberately does not include a "kill switch" in its weapons—a mechanism that allows the manufacturer to remotely block or restrict their use.
The company’s CEO, Iryna Terekh, noted that the ability to use weapons should not depend on the manufacturer’s permission or the political decisions of other countries. Fire Point acknowledges that once the weapons are transferred, it will not have full control over their subsequent use; however, the company considers this approach a crucial condition for Ukraine’s defense independence.
According to Terekh, weapons whose use requires the manufacturer’s permission effectively lose their primary function and become nothing more than a mock-up.
The experience of full-scale war has forced Ukraine to fundamentally rethink the very concept of military independence. Terekh emphasized that simply having weapons in the arsenal does not mean the state truly controls its own defense if the use of those weapons requires the consent of a third party.
From Ukraine’s experience, we have learned that security without independence is worthless. “Weapons that you possess but for which you must ask permission to use against a target are not weapons. They are merely mock-ups of weapons in your arsenal,” Terekh believes.
It is clear that in the future, some of the weapons manufactured in Ukraine will be exported. Once the weapons are sold to another country, Fire Point will have no hidden ability to block their use at a critical moment.
We understand that once we export weapons, we will no longer have control over them. That is our conscious position. This is how I see the future of weapons, because these are specific security guarantees that must be built into the hardware and technology, not just political blah-blah-blah,” added the CEO of Fire Point.
But there is another side to this principle—as Iryna Terekh explained, weapons without a kill switch must not end up in the hands of countries to which they were not intended to be sold. Therefore, this issue requires separate regulation.
However, a country that has purchased weapons, spent funds on their deployment, and trained its military to use them must be guaranteed the ability to deploy them when a real threat arises.
Fire Point CEO and CTO Iryna Terekh spoke about the company’s principled refusal to include a kill switch on the Unmanned Systems Forces’ YouTube channel during a discussion ahead of Independence Day.
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On July 29, Serhiy Shtilerman, co-owner and chief designer of the Ukrainian company Fire Point, posted a photo of the launch of an unidentified missile but did not disclose any details about the footage.
As a reminder, on Monday, July 28, Fire Point reported that Ukrainian FP-1 drones struck a warehouse belonging to the Russian logistics operator 3PL in the village of Kolidino.
