Ukrainian Winchester drones with dual guns hunt Russian UAVs

Ukraine has created a Winchester drone with two guns to combat Russian drones, Forbes writes .

Drones are constantly operating along the front lines in Ukraine. They perform reconnaissance, artillery fire adjustment, cargo transportation, and even strike the enemy with ammunition or direct contact.

With both sides actively producing up to 100,000 drones per month, destroying enemy drones has become a critical task, using radio jamming, protective nets, and shooting down drones with firearms.

The Ukrainian military is increasingly using its own drones to destroy Russian ones. They are used for aerial ramming strikes, dropping nets, or even direct weapon attacks. A new development is equipping drones with dual guns. As analyst Andrew Perpetua noted: "The Ukrainian drone has two guns."

Mounting weapons on drones is nothing new, but using two guns is an innovation. The Ukrainian Defenders Assistance Fund is raising funds to equip units with Winchester drones.This design makes practical sense. Although the guns don’t have much stopping power, their wide range increases the chances of hitting, which is critical when fighting maneuverable targets. A few bullets are often enough to destroy a drone.

During recent discussions about drones in the US, Senator Charles Scott noted: "Perhaps a gun would be an appropriate legal weapon to use against a drone."

This is confirmed by experience at the front, where both Ukrainian and Russian units actively use rifles. Due to the lack of weapons, the military, including the Russians, sometimes ask for help from civilians. One occupier appealed to the Russians in the spring: "Please help us with pump-action shotguns. Any crap will do."

However, for infantry, the main problem is the proximity to the drone: the time to react is limited. Mounting guns on drones allows the Ukrainians to destroy Russian drones early on, before they become a threat to ground forces.

The war in Ukraine was essentially the first war with such active use of drones - from air to ground and even sea assets. Ukraine destroyed enemy infantry, equipment and ships with the help of such systems.In Ukraine, even the Unmanned Systems Forces were created . The commander of this branch of the military is Hero of Ukraine Vadim Sukharevsky . The military man entered the history of the Russian-Ukrainian war as the first officer of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, under whose command fire was opened to defeat Russian militants near Slavyansk in April 2014.

Ukrainian manufacturers are actively developing this industry. For example, it was recently reported that Ukraine has completed the testing stage of new UAVs with fiber-optic communication . They are capable of overcoming enemy electronic warfare systems.