Ukraine Turned A Drone Into A Flying Shotgun, And It Actually Works

Drones are expected to play a huge role in the future of warfare. Drones may even breach the airspace of other nations. From the largest, deadliest, and most expensive to the smallest models that pose a threat only in great swarms, drones are evolving. One of the primary weaknesses of typical drones, though, is that they're reliant on a signal. If that signal is cut via electronic warfare, a drone might lose control or fall straight to the ground. 

Naturally, then, in their continued war, Ukraine and Russia have focused heavily on developing defenses capable of jamming each others' drones. A new breed of drone deployed by Russian forces in 2024 was permanently affixed to a length of fiber optic cable. At the other end of the long stretch of cable was the operator. It's an odd concept, to imagine the drone speeding away from its pilot on a sort of lead, but the huge advantage of this is that there was no electronic connection to jam. 

The onus was on Ukraine, then, to find a way to stop this new variety of drones. Both sides have developed means of countering jam-resistant drones. Sometimes, a sophisticated, subtle, electronic approach is the key. Developing a flying shotgun drone to blast fiber optic menaces out the sky has proven effective for Ukraine, though. In addition, the unique qualities of a shotgun more generally, as opposed to other types of firearm, have also meant that they've proven to be an effective weapon against drones when wielded in a more conventional way.

The speed of some fiber-optic drones is terrifying. Speaking on the subject, Iraq war veteran Carl Larson is quoted by Business Insider as saying that they are "nearly undetectable," and extremely fast. Given that level of threat, the best possible defensive measure would be something that can be kept conveniently close, quickly deployed, and doesn't depend on pinpoint accuracy. A shotgun, being both portable able to produce a spread of pellets rather than a single bullet, can offer a last-resort response.

Ukraine's PSS by Logics7 is developing a system that will allow soldiers to practice using shotguns to destroy drones using simulators. The value of the close-quarters firearms against these drones is documented. So much so, in fact, that some Ukrainian units are provided with a shotgun for this purpose. Being typically lightweight and lacking armor helps give them the drones agility, but it also means that they can be vulnerable. The scattered blast from a shotgun makes accuracy less of a burden on a fast-moving drone, and the inherent vulnerability of the target means that catching them with at least some of the shot could hamper them.

In the midst of this conflict, new weapons or capabilities are improvised. Ukrainian forces, seeking to bring the drone-downing advantages of a shotgun to bear in a more proactive, less risky way, have experimented with affixing a shotgun to a drone, to use it to intercept Russian threats in the area. Forbes explains that a recoilless shotgun system not only gives the soldier more than one chance to hit, but provides crucial stability to the wider machine. On a wide range of firearms, recoil is an ever-present issue that has to be addressed. This is all the more important in the case of a lightweight drone, and the Ukrainian approach to recoil was suitably low-tech too: Two shotguns, fired in opposite directions simultaneously. In doing so, the crucial momentum of the drone isn't interrupted, because equal and opposite recoil effectively results in none at all.

Ultimately, the low-tech solution proved practical. Drones have become so ubiquitous in this war precisely because they're often mass-produced and relatively cheap. Another of the biggest advantages of drones is that they can be simple platforms on which to mount improvised tools to serve specific aims. With Russian fiber optic drones, Ukrainian forces have this makeshift means of defense that can keep them safer. Lots of high-tech tools have been used in the Ukraine war, this isn't necessarily one of them.