Drones are a constant part of Russias invasion of Ukraine.
Drones are often small, fast, and cheap.
They can give a fighter eyes on the battlefield or deliver death to their enemies.
DIY AK-74 buckshot.© Image via Telegram.
When someone shoots them down, you lose a machine and not a soldier.
The DIY AK-74 buckshot started appearing on Russian Telegram channels that document the war earlier this year.
The journalists at The Armourers Bench have put together acomprehensive look at the phenomenon.
Drones are ubiquitous in the war between Russia and Ukraine and both sides recognize their significance.
After years of importing the devices from outside, both have ramped up domestic production.
On Monday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy claimed his countrys domestic production capacities could hit4 million drones in 2025.
In September, Putin claimed that Russia had ramped up its 2024 production10 times over 2023.
Defending against the machines is hard, but not impossible.
The most effective method is jamming them.
Pick the right frequency and the machines will simply drop out of the air.
But the average soldier doesnt have access to that kind of tech on the battlefield.
What they do have, most of the time, is a gun.
Using a rifle to shoot a drone out of the air is a nightmare.
Soldiers have to stand still, take aim, and pray they hit the drone before it hits them.
But not everyone can get a shotgun on the battlefield.
There are several different ways to make this happen.
In aJuly Telegram video, a Russian soldier showed how to make the custom cartridge.
First, they removed the projectile from a standard 5.45x39mm round.
Then they poked several ball bearings into a wire insulation sleeve.
If this sounds like a bizarre and dangerous tactic, youre right.
AK-74s are not meant to fire rounds made from ball bearings and melted plastic.
That residue might throw off the next shot someone takes or it might cause the weapon to misfire.
There are hundreds of videos of FPV drones killing Russian soldiers online.
Sometimes they drop grenades on them, other times they simply fly into their lines and explode.
The gun struck true, even if the bullets didnt and the drone exploded.
Shotguns are the weapon of choice against drones, but the dark truth is that buckshotmostly doesnt work.
Even with a wide spread, its hard to hit a fast-moving target like a drone.
The problem is so big that many companies have taken it on.
In the U.S., anyone canbuy Skynet rounds.
Thirty-nine bucks will buy you three custom shotgun rounds thatexpand into a netwhen fired.
A Russian company is working on a similar shotgun round thatsakin to a bola.
In the U.S., a defense company backed by a16z is testing a more expensive solution to the problem.
ZeroMark is betting a computer is better at tracking a fast-moving target than a human.
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The War in Ukraine Is Fought on Horseback Against Drones Carrying Machine Guns
War.
