Faced with limited quantities of FPV drones, Ukraine has come up with an ingenious low-cost solution that actually seems to work. Using “Winchester” quadcopters, they’ve rigged them up for single shots with shrapnel charges with the minimum negative impact of recoil. The drones are designed for multiple-use rather than single-use FPV drones.
Source: Forbes
Ukraine’s shotgun-wielding drones are hunting Russian infantry now.
A video montage that a Ukrainian drone group posted online on Saturday depicts one of the group’s “Winchester” quadcopters performing its usual mission: hunting down and blasting Russian quadcopters before they strike Ukrainian troops.
But seemingly taking advantage of a fleeting opportunity, one operator also took aim at a solitary Russian soldier—or North Korean, if the engagement took place in western Russia’s Kursk Oblast—marching along a dirt road under the Winchester’s flight path.
The drone swooped past the initially unwitting soldier and opened fire with both of its shotgun barrels. Apparently having missed, the drone came around for a second pass. It’s unclear whether the soldier was wounded or killed. The video appears to depict the person dodging or falling.
Necessity is the mother of invention, as they say.
It’s hard to say whether this signals a shift in Ukrainian drone tactics, but the value of a gun-armed first-person-view drone is obvious.
Most FPV quadcopters are single-use systems. Clutching a grenade or rocket warhead to their bellies, they barrel into their targets and destroy themselves in the process. An FPV might cost just a few hundred dollars, so the type isn’t exactly expensive.
Ukrainian drone with two shotguns shoots down several Russian drones, shoots a soldier and throws a grenade pic.twitter.com/f0h0y6eOOy
— War Monitor Clips (@WarMonitorClips) January 12, 2025
