# Cooking-Pot Mishap Highlights Ukrainian Missile Team’s Battle Against Jamming

*Saturday, September 26, 2026 at 6:18 AM UTC — Hamer Intelligence Services Desk*

**Published**: 2026-09-26T06:18:30.066Z (2h ago)
**Category**: intelligence | **Region**: Eastern Europe
**Importance**: 5/10
**Sources**: OSINT
**Permalink**: https://hamerintel.com/data/articles/18874.md
**Source**: https://hamerintel.com/summaries

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**Deck**: Developers of Ukraine’s FP‑5 Flamingo missile once used a kitchen pot lid to block its antenna during testing, Fire Point’s CEO says, an improvised trial that ended with the lid sucked into the engine but showed the hardware could survive harsh conditions.

A makeshift test with a kitchen utensil has shed light on how Ukrainian engineers are trying to keep guided weapons working under intense electronic interference.

Iryna Terekh, CEO of the Ukrainian defense company Fire Point, described how developers of the FP‑5 Flamingo missile used an ordinary cooking‑pot lid to physically block the missile’s CRP antenna from seeing satellites during trials. The antenna is built to function under active jamming and spoofing, so the team wanted to see how it behaved when satellite reception was cut off entirely.

During one engine test, an engineer forgot to remove the lid. When the engine started, it sucked the lid into the intake. The team shut the engine down in time, and it survived the incident, according to Terekh.

The anecdote points to the pressures on Ukrainian designers working in a war where Russia invests heavily in electronic warfare. Jamming and spoofing can interfere with navigation systems on drones and missiles; if guidance fails, a weapon can miss its target, wasting scarce munitions and creating extra risks on the ground.

With the FP‑5’s antenna, Ukrainian engineers are trying to build in resilience so the missile can keep operating when satellite signals are weak, distorted or intermittently blocked. Crude physical tests, such as covering the antenna with a pot lid, complement lab work and software simulations by exposing hardware to simple but harsh conditions.

The story also underlines how Ukraine’s defense industry is mixing high‑end design with quick, sometimes improvised testing under wartime deadlines. Companies like Fire Point are expected to respond rapidly to front‑line feedback and deliver systems that can function in a crowded, contested electromagnetic environment.

As both Russia and Ukraine rely more heavily on guided weapons, performance under jamming and spoofing will be a central measure of effectiveness. Reports from the field about how FP‑5 missiles behave under electronic attack, and how often Ukrainian officials stress protection against interference in new systems, will be important clues to how this contest is evolving.