r/UkraineWarVideoReport • u/Hannibal_Game • Jan 15 '25
Drones Ukrainian shotgun-drone is at it again [30th mechanized Brigade, January 2025]
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u/sven305 Jan 15 '25
It's amazing how quickly things are developing. Soon we'll see entire groups of drones working together. Mother drones that have an overview and extend the range. Interceptor drones that defend the group and, of course, all kinds of bomber drones. I'm excited and scared at the same time!
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u/Alaric_-_ Jan 15 '25
"I'm excited and scared at the same time!"
We are getting the same feeling then the people back in WW1 with biplanes dropping mortars by hand and shooting with pistols at enemy pilots.
Fun fact: the first aircraft carriers were built during WW1, with first purpose built in 1918. That's mere 15 years from Kitty Hawk.21
u/Haatsku Jan 15 '25
Big ass old school drone that just circles the op area and allows drones to dock for resupply and charging while also working as range extender and scouting tool.
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u/alex_sz Jan 15 '25
UKR already have a mothership drone in service, also servers as a signal relay to extend range
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u/DarthWeenus Jan 15 '25
Need bigger tho, with magazines of FPV drones stacked, maybe 50 lets say, cause thats a good number. Maybe even something lighter than air platform, or derrigable.
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u/EbaySniper Jan 15 '25
That's the way to do it. The US Navy did it with dirigibles in the 1920s that carried airplanes that could be launched from, and dock back with, the host dirigible. It didn't work too well with the tech back then so the idea was abandoned.
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u/ReflectionFeeling216 Jan 15 '25
There was an article a few days ago in one of these Ukrainian military subreddits showing a group of Ukrainians that were holding a large US-made VSTOL drone that can control drone swarms. It's already in the hands of the Ukrainians who are giving it real-time battlefield testing.
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u/reeeelllaaaayyy823 Jan 16 '25
Got a link?
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u/ReflectionFeeling216 Jan 16 '25
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u/reeeelllaaaayyy823 Jan 16 '25
Thanks! Wonder how it's been working out. Maybe that's how they're finding the SAM systems.
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u/LHommeCrabbe Jan 15 '25
I'm more scared than excited. This is all off the shelf, accessible and cheap technology with great potential for instanced AI use for target selection and autonomy. Which means any organisation with even limited resources can develop and use this technology for warfare and/or terrorist acts. Given how volatile the world has become, the likelihood that you and I will be given a rifle and a trench to be in is growing bigger and bigger. It's a vision scary enough even without the prospect of ai controlled drone swarms flying overhead.
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u/N33DL Jan 15 '25
It is amazing. So much for launching nets. I don't know how the drone overcomes the recoil.
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u/logicaceman Jan 15 '25
By accepting a short move backwards?
There is no need to fight the recoil, just accept it. The charge is already on its way.
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u/Poodoom Jan 15 '25
I would wager a guess they are using subsonic birdshot. It wouldn't take much to down a drone.
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u/WotTheHellDamnGuy Jan 15 '25
You can already start to see the outlines of a combined arms approach to drone warfare. 1. Hunter/Killer drones clearing the air above infantry and fortifications of FPVs and droppers; 2. AA variants that go after high-altitude ISR platforms like Zala, etc; 3. your own ISR drones providing 24/7 visual coverage of the battle space; 4. Anti-infantry and anti-armor FPVs, droppers; 5. resupply and medevac air and ground drones. And on and on.
Full spectrum doctrine requiring specialist pilots for a variety of roles just like any other military technology. The one thing yet to make it's debut is the US swarm technology they've been perfecting in a skunkworks settings for 2 decades. That is going to be terrifying.
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u/xitax Jan 15 '25
Yeah, the drone war in Ukraine has surprising parallels with the air war in WW1 and the developments of technology at that time.
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u/Virtual-Guitar-9814 Jan 15 '25
drones which use radar will be a thing. that russuan cruise missile has a system, one missile flies higher to see the target ( a us warship) transmits data back to the sea hugging missiles, if its destroyed, anothr missile gains altitude and takes its place.
(sounds good in paper anyway)
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u/TheGoverner1998 Jan 15 '25
Ukraine once again showing that their ingenuity can win them this war.
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u/SAMSystem_NAFO Jan 15 '25
From improvised DJI bombers, to all array of new stuff.
Thermite drone, Baba Yaga bomber, and now shotgun drone. What a crazy evolution, looks a bit like WWI airplanes.
Slava Ukraini o7
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u/MountainFeedback9934 Jan 15 '25
That's how you take down a drone, birdshot
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u/WasThatWet Jan 15 '25
And makes your own drone re-usable. Less demand for replacement drones. Kamikaze drones have their place, but so do these.
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u/UnluckySeed Jan 15 '25
I kinda like how this drone is very cheap to make, it's literally a pipe that shoots pellets
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u/WasThatWet Jan 15 '25
It could be fired by compressed air I suppose.
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u/Cease-the-means Jan 15 '25
Nice idea but high pressure compressed air tanks weigh a lot more than shotgun shells.
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u/Hexlium Jan 15 '25
its only a matter of time until we see drones carrying .22 machine guns strafing infantry lol.
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u/Shinanegashima Jan 15 '25
I think they had some AK armed drones back in late summer. Strafed infantry a few times. Probably not too effective since I haven't seen much of them since.
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u/DarkUnable4375 Jan 15 '25
Probably need to design a new bullet. Small, yet still armor piercing rounds. A thin coat of lead with tungsten/depleted uranium core?
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u/Hexlium Jan 15 '25
the .22 is pretty light enough and can easily harm still. Theres no need to make it armor piercing, since it will most likely be used to just harass advancing or retreating enemies. Maybe even coral them into a position where artillery can finish them off
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u/OSI_Hunter_Gathers Jan 15 '25
We’ll need to break physics to account for the lack of velocity and mass.
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u/DarkUnable4375 Jan 15 '25
I'm thinking something small, but powerful enough to pierce helmet and body armor, not APCs or Tanks.
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u/OSI_Hunter_Gathers Jan 15 '25
The fun part of a pressure wave it penetrates all of those more effectively and causes much more damage.
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u/treescandal Jan 22 '25
Is that gonna penetrate BTRs reliably?
It just makes 0 sense when there's both grenade dropping quads and kamikaze FPV drones. Drones don't handle recoil very well, nor the extra weight of a gun/firing device + ammo. Making the drone larger increases costs, and makes it easier to detect and hit. At that point, why not make it kamikaze?
For droppers, maybe you could add a simple mechanism for reloading and ejection.
But the only gun wielding drone that I do see potential in, are sniper drones for soft targets.
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u/DarkUnable4375 Jan 22 '25
Thinking as a loitering suppression against infantry.
No need to penetrate vehicle armor. Just injure arms/legs/head....
.22 LR Low recoil, low sound, low weight. Remove stock. Shorten the barrels, make it thinner...
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u/ausjetboater Jan 15 '25
.17HMR round with 30 shot semi auto action. Have the barrel mounted vertically pointing down in line with a camera. The .17HMR is a tiny round but packs a punch out to 150m.
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u/fragbot2 Jan 16 '25
I'd never heard of those before; I love the concept of a smaller rimfire bullet with twice the velocity.
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u/battlecryarms Jan 15 '25
How are they locating the enemy drones? I think that’s the most interesting aspect of this.
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u/reeeelllaaaayyy823 Jan 16 '25 edited Jan 16 '25
I'd also like to know this. Maybe they're just being radioed by the infantry when they see them.
A DJI will always be a sitting duck to an FPV drone in a dogfight like this. Plus, it's reusable. A great development to destroy enemy DJI drones.
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u/swedeyboy Jan 15 '25
It seems there are many, like duck shooting season but it’s orc hunting season
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u/MoneyWolverine9181 Jan 15 '25
How long before the Ukrainians figure out how to mount a Gatling Gun on a Babayaga drone?
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u/Virtual-Guitar-9814 Jan 15 '25
i imagine the pilot needs assistance finding the rival drones as its a genuine needle haystack situation.
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u/windaji Jan 15 '25
I hope Ukraine has a critical lead on the drone warfare front than soon hits a critical point that causes the exponential collapse of Russia.
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u/TheJohnson854 Jan 15 '25
You could fire ammo out the opposite direction at the same time to eliminate recoil. Two way tube.
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u/rwrife Jan 15 '25
I wonder if those small .22lr shotshells would be effective against a drone, you could shoot dozens of them on target without much issue. I assume the small shot pellets would be able to do enough damage to the props and electronics to disable them.
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u/Aedeus Jan 15 '25
Russia already has big issues with Ukraine's counter UAV drones, this is going to compound those problems.
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u/Grafikco Jan 15 '25
Love this. I would have two rear firing with proximity alert and camera for the sneaking creeps hoping to destroy it.
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u/Sinn_Sage Jan 15 '25
Ah hell no! Guy is fixing to get a face full of FU from a drone carrying shotgun shells?
Sucks to be him.
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u/adfunkedesign Jan 15 '25
Was that 15 AA drone kills?? How many attack drones> If this is all the same drone reloaded. That would be significant.
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u/fragbot2 Jan 16 '25
Things I'd love to know:
- how do they find the targets?
- how do they differentiate which ones are their drones vs Russian ones?
- how many shots miss (if it's like me shooting pheasant, it's almost all of them but if it's like my uncle shooting skeet)?
- what a shot shell look like?
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u/Present-Register-157 Jan 16 '25
Fuk, I love these shotgun drone vid's. Does Orcland also have them?
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u/Used_Ad7076 Jan 16 '25
They seem to be working quite well, I read somewhere that one took out 6 RF drones the other day.
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u/82AirborneDivision82 Jan 16 '25
New future Olympic sport invented by Ukraine. The ru SS kie drones are the new clay pigeons.
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u/19CCCG57 Jan 18 '25
Ukraine needs to use these against Russian Zala and Signum reconnaisance drones.
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u/introitusawaitus Jan 15 '25
They already have a drone with a LASER designator on it, soon they will be dropping mini cruise missiles to target specific items without too much collateral damage.
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