MILAN — The Russian and Ukrainian militaries are moving to transform their soldiers’ rifles into weapons capable of countering exploding drones, experimenting with different ammunition types to determine the best shot, according to experts and reports posted on social media sites.
The renewed push to transform soldier weapons into desperate defenses of last resort against explodable first-person view drones represents a more systematic approach to a problem that has cost countless lives on the battlefield.
“FPV drones have become much more effective via technical improvements and pilot skills, as well as many tactical EW and jamming systems don’t work effectively or as intended all the time – this forces soldiers to develop methods to shoot down drones in the last 100 meters of their flight,” Sam Bendett, advisor at the Washington-based Center for Naval Analyses, said.
The effectiveness of using small arms to counter these types of drones remains uncertain at best, depending largely on luck and drone pilot skill, Bendett noted.
Russian Telegram channels recently published footage showing Russian soldiers making DIY anti-drone ammunition by using the pellets taken from buckshot rounds and repurposing them to be used in normal 5.45x39mm rounds used in assault rifles.
Even if a shot goes on target, pellet size and drone construction determine a successful intercept.
“Larger pellets offer more mass but the energy is delivered over a bigger surface area – the larger the pellet, the less density you have in the air, this is known as ‘pattern,’” said Paul Bradley, a ballistics expert at Hexagon Ammunition, a company owned by Beretta Holding. “A dense, wide pattern increases hit probability but smaller pellets reduce terminal effect.”
In early November, the German military-news website Hartpunkt reported about a document from the Ukrainian Special Forces Command that examined Russian troops’ use of 12-gauge shotguns to counter small drones.
According to the analysis, the threat associated with FPV drones is deemed so grave that it recommended placing a dedicated shooter at the back of every military vehicle near the frontlines in case electronic warfare systems fail to disable the flying explosives.
It also reported that Russian troops track the departure points of Ukrainian drones and place ambushes with several of their drone shooters to attempt to hit them.
According to Bradley, hobbyist quadcopter drones, like those made by Chinese maker DJI, tend to have a body made out of thin plastic as well as rigid but flimsy propellers in order to keep their weight down. That makes them “very easy” to damage with widely available 12g sporting rounds, he added.
In contrast, first-person view drones are generally built with thick carbon fiber frames and softer plastic propellers more resistant to impact, reflecting their heritage as machines designed for high-speed racing. Sporting ammunition typically cannot damage FPV sufficiently at almost any range, according to Bradley.
“Drones require more energy on target when they are in the air,” he explained. “When they are hit they simply move as they have very little inertia – the movement robs the pellets of kinetic energy, rather like punching something in zero gravity, less energy is transferred to target as it is used up moving it backward.”
The Ukrainian Third Assault Brigade demonstrated these challenges as part of an experimental shooting conducted earlier this month, simulating an FPV drone attack to test which kind of bullet is most effective. Soldiers compared shooting standard cartridges and specific anti-drone ammunition using different types of guns, including shotguns.
In the majority of cases, not only was the FPV not downed, but even when it was damaged, the system kept flying as the shot was too weak. In the one instance where the target was hit with an anti-drone charge, it crashed and caught fire near the shooter, barely missing him.
Some of the short-range drone defense tactics that have emanated from Ukraine have caught the attention of Western gun and ammunition companies.
Among them is the Swedish cartridge manufacturer Norma, also part of Beretta Holding, which has developed and tested its Anti-Drone Long Effective Range (AD-LER) against FPVs. In testing, the munition managed to “catastrophically down” six out of seven drones deployed at up to 50 meters away, according to Bradley, who said he observed the trials.
Elisabeth Gosselin-Malo is a Europe correspondent for Defense News. She covers a wide range of topics related to military procurement and international security, and specializes in reporting on the aviation sector. She is based in Milan, Italy.
