Western gun makers are exploring the potential of small arms to counter small drones, turning cheap and widely available weapons into last-resort defenses against an emerging threat.
The shift is playing out on the battlefields of eastern Ukraine, where invading Russian forces and defending Ukrainian soldiers have employed tactics to that effect. Now, other militaries are starting to explore the use case, says Italian gun manufacturer Benelli Armi, owned by the Beretta Holding.
“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 Defense News at the Eurosatory trade show here.
The company supplies shotguns combined with special drone ammunition, which are already in use with the French and Italian armed forces. Dubbed the ALDA round, short for anti-light drone ammunition, this type of projectile is dedicated to shooting down moving targets such as small drones, weighing less than 25 kilograms, at distances between 80 and 120 meters.
Della Costanza said that the growing interest in using shotguns to neutralize these low-flying threats has to do with the cost-effectiveness and ease of operation these weapons offer to forces.
