On the back of a number of public nuisance incidents, Russia has launched a new drone with a purpose-built shotgun, designed for the sole intention of shooting other drones out of the sky.
You may remember the Gatwick airport drone chaos that descended on London just days before Christmas last year. It’s but one of a number of incidents which are causing large outcries from the public, and leaving officials with no choice but to clamp down on usage with tighter laws. In Hawaii, event organizers even went as far as to use a helicopter to shoot a rogue drone out of the sky. The rollout of drones to the general consumer has only seen the problem worsen.
So how is Russia handling it? By mount a shotgun to a drone itself, of course. Russian defense blog Dambiev revealed the new shotgun-mounted drone is courtesy of Russian defense contractor JSC Almaz Antey.
The Vepr-12 is externally similar to the AK series of Russian assault rifles, but instead fires from a magazine of ten 12-gauge shotgun shells.
Weighing just 50 pounds, the shotgun drone is said to “fly like a plane,” and is armed with a 12-gauge fully-automatic Vepr-12 shotgun.
Check out the video to see the shotgun drone shooting other targets down.