Saudi’s Aramco denies it is seeking Ukrainian interceptor drones to defend oil infrastructure
March 13, 2026
According to a new French publication, Intelligence Online. Aramco, Saudi Arabia’s oil giant, is in talks with at least two Ukrainian companies to purchase interceptor drones. However, Aramco quickly denied the report as inaccurate.
Aramco reportedly in talks to purchase Ukrainian interceptor drones
These Ukrainian drones are reported to be being procured to help defend its oil infrastructure against Iranian drone attacks.
Reporting on the story, the WSJ stated that Aramco is “racing to secure drones ahead of its own government and regional competitors, including Qatar, the people said. Aramco is talking to Ukrainian companies SkyFall and Wild Hornets…”
Ukraine’s Wild Hornets is one of the leading interceptor drone companies and is reportedly producing them at a rate in excess of 10,000 a month. These are reported to cost only $2,000-2,500, with prices varying depending on the model.
Fact: There are nights when Ukrainian soldiers shoot down over a hundred Shaheds using STING interceptors.
— Wild Hornets (@wilendhornets) March 11, 2026
Another fact: we assemble one STING in just 2 minutes.
In short — more to come! pic.twitter.com/5PUdJEeU55
Ukrainian President Zelenski has previously said it has dispatched anti-drone teams to the Middle East at the request of Gulf States and the United States to protect against key infrastructure from Iranian one-way attack drones. Around 11 countries are reported to be seeking Ukraine’s anti-drone capabilities.
Aramco denies the reports that it is purchasing interceptor drones
Hours after Intelligence Online broke the story, Reuters published a counter-story saying it is not true.
Reuters reported yesterday, “Saudi oil giant Aramco said on Thursday that claims it is in discussions with Ukrainian companies to buy interceptor drones are inaccurate, after a report said it was seeking them to defend its oilfields against aerial attacks.”
The denial is somewhat vague and doesn’t necessarily mean it doesn’t have any ongoing dealings with Ukraine.
It doesn’t say whether the company is still looking to purchase interceptor drones or other anti-drone technology. It doesn’t comment on whether it will get interceptor drones from the reported Saudi deal in the works discussed below.
Saudi Arabia’s “huge” Ukraine anti-drone deal
On the 10th of March, the Kyiv Independent published an article claiming “Saudi Arabian arms company has signed a deal to buy Ukrainian-made interceptor missiles.”
A Ukrainian civilian An-28 aircraft, modified for the role of a “Shahed hunter,” now bears a staggering 114 confirmed kills marked on its fuselage. https://t.co/AxeHdG9gtd pic.twitter.com/HWaM20cOgW
— Special Kherson Cat 🐈🇺🇦 (@bayraktar_1love) February 4, 2026
It added that Riyadh and Kyiv are negotiating a separate “huge deal” Ukrainian interceptor drone models include TAF Industries’ “Octopus,” Skyfall’s P1Sun, and a project by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt called Merops.
There are many ways to counter Shahed-style drones. Both Ukraine and the UAE have been seen machine-gunning them down with helicopters. Ukraine also uses a modified An-28 passenger aircraft.
Discussions about the price of Patriot interceptor missiles and Shahed drones are uninformed or disengenious. Ukraine doesn’t use its precious Patriot missiles to shoot them down.
Eight enemy Shahed-type drones down thanks to Wild Hornets’ STING interceptors 🐝
— Wild Hornets (@wilendhornets) March 11, 2026
Six Shaheds and two Gerberas were destroyed by Horizon Group operators using STING Shahed interceptors with a cruising flight time of up to 15 minutes.
This is enough time to successfully destroy… pic.twitter.com/7mpphnsReU
Instead, Ukraine is mass-producing cheap interceptor drones that it can produce at a larger scale than Russia’s Shahed-style drones. With interceptors costing around $2,500 each and Shahed-style drones costing $20,000 to $50,000, the “shot exchange problem” appears to be flipping.
The Kyiv Independent wrote, “Ukrainian commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrsky wrote on March 3 that interceptor drones had accomplished nearly 6,300 flights and destroyed ‘over one and a half thousand Russian UAVs of different types’ over February.”
The US Air Force also uses cheap laser-guided 70mm Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System II (APKWS II) rockets to shoot them down. This is something Ukraine is also doing with its Mirage 2000s carrying Magic-2 missiles.
Featured Image: Wild Hornets
