Russian researchers publish Counter-Drone Swarm design

Russian military researchers have published a counter-drone swarm system design that would spray a large amount of fragmented munition to destroy incoming threats, RIA Novosti revealed.

The system diagram shows a multi-barrelled weapon station on four horizontally interconnected telescopic rails installed on a quadcopter.

Citing the document, the outlet wrote that the system hovers over a protected object. As its sensors detect an incoming swarm, they signal the “electric capsules of the charges of the multi-barrel combat module,” leading to a discharge of a volley of fragmented ammunition toward the swarm.

The system’s net of fragmented ammunition would shield targets such as military vehicles and sensitive installations at a fraction of the cost of current counter-drone systems such as “air defense, electronic warfare, barrage systems, fighter and army aviation, [and] small arms,” according to researchers from the Military University of the Ministry of Defense.

The effort to develop economical and effective counter-drone swarm systems runs in parallel to the work Russian military developers are putting in to develop drone swarm systems.