Ukrainian military forces now have an additional method for combating enemy unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) - the Russian forces themselves have shared videos on their social media showing how the Ukrainian Defense Forces are using FPV drones equipped with shotguns against their "eyes". Here’s how the destruction of Russian drones looks with this combination of weaponry:
In the first two short yet striking videos, one can clearly see how, after the approach of our FPV to the enemy drone, an exceptionally accurate shot is fired that, most importantly, brings down the hostile UAV.
Given that several successful episodes of using FPV drones with shotguns have surfaced online, it suggests that our military has likely already completed the testing phase of such a system and is collaborating with developers to scale the technology.
The extent to which this solution will be widespread and the actual effectiveness ratio of FPV drones with shotguns against enemy drones remains uncertain, but it seems that our developers and military personnel have successfully addressed the main challenge - ensuring shooting accuracy against aerial targets (of course, we cannot discount the high skill level of the drone operator).
In fact, this is not the first time Ukraine has tackled the challenge of "attaching some weaponry to FPV drones and making it capable of hitting targets." Previously, we reported on how FPV drones with grenade launchers are utilized on the battlefield.
In the context of combating drones, the most successful initiative so far has been the so-called anti-aircraft FPV drones - as of the end of November this year, within one project, over 400 Russian UAVs have been destroyed by anti-aircraft FPV drones, targeting "wings" like "Orlan," Zala, and others, as well as loitering munitions such as "Lancet."
At the same time, FPV drones with shotguns, if successfully scaled, could significantly increase the number of enemy copters shot down.