Varta Put a Shotgun on a Drone. Ukraine's Frontlines Say It Works(dronexl.co)
2 pointsby tim3336 hours ago3 comments
  • MisterTea6 hours ago
    From the pictures the shot gun appears to be more of a "zip gun" - a home made/improvised gun. The barrel is a tube while the shells seem to have some kind of squib or electric match replacing the shells percussion cap. That removes the weight of a mechanical gun mechanism with firing pin. This feels like a case for moving towards electronic firing case-less ammo perhaps?
  • tim3336 hours ago
    $300 add on - see it in action https://x.com/saintjavelin/status/2039672658086744566

    It's recoilless with two cartridges firing in opposite directions.

    It can also work autonomously from 126m.

    Very cunning this Ukranian tech.

  • bell-cot6 hours ago
    Not to rain on the parade...but this is innovation with a very small "i". Aircraft using guns against each other was SOP in WWI, and they were already using recoilless (in the air) back then.
    • tim3336 hours ago
      Yeah but it's cheap and doesn't need putting pilots up there. The:

      >When a Russian recon drone enters the zone, the system vectors an interceptor to chase it down and destroy it, without requiring a human operator to manually fly the engagement.

      thing didn't happen much in WW1.

      • bell-cot4 hours ago
        Yeah - in WWI, autonomous weapons were mostly mines (land or naval).

        OTOH, fire-and-forget missiles have been around for half a century or so.

        Bigger picture: Yes, obviously this is a good idea. My take is that it should be graded purely on how well they've implemented it - with no hype, and 0 extra credit points for "innovation".