A US Marine engages a target with a Benelli M1014 semi-automatic shotgun during a training. Shotguns are now being viewed as an effective weapon to deal with small drones. (U.S. Defense Dept. photo)
By David Pugliese
Uninhabited aerial vehicles, more commonly known as drones, continue to dominate the modern battlefield from the Middle East to Ukraine.
They range from larger aircraft to small First Person View (FPV) drones that are being used to drop single bombs onto targets during fighting in Ukraine.
In the Red Sea, Houthi militants are using drones and missiles to target commercial shipping and western navies that have moved into the region to protect merchant vessels. The U.S. Navy is using missiles that can cost as much as $2 million each to destroy a Houthi-launched drone worth several thousand dollars..
During a April 8, 2024 appearance before the Senate defence committee, then Chief of the Defence Staff Gen. Wayne Eyre noted that Ukraine has faced significant difficulties dealing with continuing drone attacks, with air defence systems being overwhelmed by the sheer quantity of the flying bombs.
Various militaries are scrambling to field counter drone capabilities.
The Department of National Defence has embarked on a variety of tests with the aim to keep troops safe. Everything from jammers to lasers are being examined.
Between May 27 and June 21, the Canadian military held its Counter Uncrewed Aerial Systems Sandbox 2024 event. That test, which had observers from the RCMP and U.S. government, focused on how to detect and/or defeat micro and mini uncrewed aerial systems.
Some militaries are going to the tried and true method of destroying such flying threats – intense firepower throwing up a wall of projectiles to shred or damage drones. Rheinmetall noted in January 2024 that the deployment in Ukraine of its Skynex air defence system had already prompted new orders from other militaries.
The system, which can be used to destroy drones and other airborne threats, fires around 1,000 rounds a minute at its targets.
BAE announced in January that it had successfully tested a new counter drone capability on one of the U.S. Army’s armoured vehicles in a live-fire event. The test demonstrated “the turret engaging with ground targets and utilizing a slew-to-cure capability to target both stationary and moving small drones with 30mm proximity rounds,” the statement noted.
As it struggles to acquire missiles from western nations for its air defence needs, Ukraine has resorted to a system of heavy machineguns and anti-aircraft guns to shoot down drones. Such air defence systems are credited with being responsible for more than 40 per cent of the intercepts of drones in Ukraine.
And to deal with the deadly Small First Person View (FPV) drones, militaries are going even lower tech – the 12-guage shotgun.
The Ukrainians were among the first to use shotguns for such purposes.
Ukraine’s armed forces has purchased 4,000 BTS12 shotguns from Hatsan, a Turkish firm, so troops have a FPV drone defence weapon. The shotgun is a bullpup design and has been already credited with a number of kills.
Ukraine’s use of shotguns for counter drone activities, in turn, has sparked a potential market for other militaries. “The use of different types of guns in this capacity in Ukraine has accelerated the demand we get for our shotguns to be sold in a counter-drone configuration – we’ve received a lot of request for information for this from NATO countries,” Mauro Della Costanza, head of sales at Benelli’s defense division, told the American publication, Defense News, at the Eurosatory trade show in June.
“Considering the size of these drones and the high price of some of the more complex countermeasures used to shoot them down – a shotgun with 1,000 [of these] rounds is at maximum three thousand euros,” he added.
French and Italian troops are already equipped with Benellis with the special ALDA (anti-light drone) shotgun round. The round is designed to take down moving targets such as small drones, weighing less than 25 kilograms, at distances between 80 and 120 meters.
Small quadcopters can be destroyed at distances of 90 metres. (In Ukraine troops have been using regular hunting shotgun rounds which only have an effective range against FPVs from 30 to 45 metres).
The French military has been using the Benelli Supernova 12-gauge shotgun since 2022. It has recently started deploying some of the guns with a 28-inch barrel as this offers a longer sight radius to deal with drones.
Belgian troops also use the Benelli M4 shotgun for counter-drone work.
The U.S. Navy has regular drills now for its personnel to use shotguns to deal with drones.
But Ukraine and NATO nations aren’t the only ones to turn to shotguns as a counter-drone method.
Russian troops have also embraced such weaponry after complaints that electronic jammers weren’t doing the job on the Ukraine battlefield.
Drone-users get around the jammers by continually changing frequencies or using jam-resistant control systems for the airborne robots. In addition, the Ukrainians are now producing so many drones that they are overwhelming Russian troops on the ground.
Russia has started issuing its troops 12-gauge Vepr-12 Molot shotguns, according to social media posts in May 2024. Those weapons are a semi-automatic weapon with a five-round magazine and have already been credited by the Russians for shooting down drones.
In addition, Forbes magazine has reported that some Russian military video shows troops with GP-25 under-barrel grenade launchers that have been converted to fire a shotgun cartridge for drone defence.
“I have to say that even a simple shotgun that you go hunting with, which shoots a spray of shot, turns out to be more effective than a machine gun trying to shoot down a drone,” retired Colonel Andrei Koshkin told the Russian newspaper Lenta in April.
Other Russian units have been using an adapter outfitted to the barrels of AK-74 assault rifles, allowing it to fire a grapeshot round that can be used against low-flying drones.
Shotguns are just one weapon in the arsenal to counter drones. They are effective as long as troops realize the limitations of the range such guns have in dealing with drones.
But selection of ammunition for shotguns is equally important.
There is the previously mentioned ALDA (anti-light drone) shotgun.
In 2017 the U.S. Air Force purchased for testing a limited number of SkyNet Mi-5 shells from AMTEC Less Lethal Systems (ALS). The projectile is a 12-gauge anti-drone round designed to be rapidly deployed against commercially available drones. Upon firing through a rifled choke barrel, the round releases five tethered segments and creates a five -foot wide ‘capture net’ to trap the drone’s propellers causing it to fail, according to the manufacturer. The round is said to have a range of up to 140 metres.
In July 2024 the U.S. Marine Corps put out a request for information to defence companies to provide “buckshot-like” canister rounds for its rifles as well as .50 caliber machine guns and 40mm grenade launchers. The Marines are referring to the rounds as “advanced ammunition” for defeating small drones.
