War in Ukraine: “A smart innovation”… How drones armed with shotguns can attack Russian infantry

Faced with a shortage of soldiers, Ukraine is trying to reinvent itself on the front. A few days before the third anniversary of the start of the conflict against Russia, kyiv is counting on new technology to respond to Moscow’s incessant attacks: shotguns integrated into its FPV drones.

Also read:
DECRYPTION. War in Ukraine: with attacks on energy infrastructure, the tireless fight of the Russians to destabilize Ukraine

This innovation responds to a growing need in the face of an air war which has taken on major importance in recent months. “The fact is that we see everything the enemy does and he sees everything we do. To break this impasse, we need something new,” said army commander Valery Zaluzhny. Ukrainian, in November 2023.

Also read:
War in Ukraine: two dead in a Ukrainian strike in occupied Russian territory, the Kremlin claims the conquest of two localities

Capable of targeting Russian infantry

Thanks to FPV drones, which are inexpensive and which allow them to strike targets directly without collateral damage, Volodymyr Zelensky’s army had already found a first solution to containing the assault by Russian forces. But in recent days, as noted by the magazine GeoUkraine has equipped its drones with shotguns.

On a video viewed by a journalist from Forbesone of the quadcopters spots a Russian infantry soldier, on foot, and decides to target him. If at first he missed the target, the latter came back on his way to shoot again and hit the Russian soldier, without us knowing if the latter was injured or fatally hit.

“The pump shotgun turns out to be the most suitable solution”

Still, this innovation is a new step forward for kyiv. “Their task is to scour the sky to flush out Russian drones and shoot them down in flight. But as this video shows, they can also attack infantry,” comments Louis Duclos, geopolitical analyst, on his X account “This is the first case of a drone armed with a gun that I have seen that really makes sense,” notes Sergej Sumlenny, an expert on Eastern Europe and a supporter of the European Union. Ukraine, on X.

Currently, the majority of FPV drones are used as kamikazes. “They carry an explosive charge which, when thrown against their target, destroys them,” specifies Geo. Ukraine could transform the use of these drones by equipping them massively with shotguns. “More and more, the pump shotgun is proving to be the most suitable solution for fighting drones, particularly FPV drones (which explode on their target),” adds Louis Duclos.

Also read:
War in Ukraine: a French plane flying for NATO was targeted by the Russian army

While kyiv produces around 100,000 drones per month, their production cost would drop if they were to be used several times. Faced with the shortage of soldiers, Volodymyr Zelensky is clearly banking on this clear strategy: continuing the development of these flying weapons, as when a video circulated showing an AK-47 rifle strafing a Russian trench from one of these drones. An “interesting” new method, according to Louis Duclos, who “notes that this type of innovation systematically comes from the Ukrainian side and that the Russians only innovate at the level of countermeasures”.