this post was submitted on 22 Oct 2024
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Serious question: would carrying a shotgun in the field be worth the additional weight? Would it be feasible to switch to the shotgun and kill it before it got into lethal range?
I think a semi-auto shotgun would definitely be worth it. I think armies should also add skeet shooting to boot camp and have skeet shooting specialized troops in every squad going forward.
It just seems self evident, you'd think it would at least be considered. Every drone death I have seen the target is clearly aware of the drone and has had time to react and run.
Maybe. Getting a shotgun out, and pointed in the right direction is not instant. I can do it fairly fast when I'm hunting, but I keep plenty of extra paddles in my canoe so that after shooting I can go find the dropped paddles. I'm not sure if soldiers are in position to safely throw whatever they have in their hands. I'm also not sure if having a shotgun is worth the extra weight when they don't need it.
For sure this needs a military expert to weigh in on. Though I doubt they are talking yet.
Not sure if there are any experts on drone warfare yet
Compared to me Ukraine as a lot of them. Though your point is probably correct overall.
Of course it was the same way in WW1 with machine guns and tanks.
These days there’s still a limited amount of knowledge about how to attack and defend aircraft carriers.
So it could be that drone warfare is in the same ballpark with these other technologies in terms of understanding.
The resurrection of the AA-12
Would Skeet shooting be applicable here? I thought a good part of the skill with Skeet was seeing the flight path of the target and anticipating where its going to be then shooting, but all of that in skeet is dependent on linear paths and no other change in velocity from the clay pigeon. Drones don't behave that way. They speed up, they slow down, they hover, they go left, right, up, down, backwards, forwards and seemingly random intervals.
I haven't tried my shotgun on real drones, but I would expect it makes no difference. Once you point in the right direction and pull the trigger the shot leaves fast enough such that I don't expect a drone can move too far.
I wasn't saying the drone would move out of the way between the time you line up the target and pull the trigger, but instead that drones move so quickly and unpredictable that you may never get lined up on the target.
Birds are not exactly predictable (depends on the bird, geese fly in a V and are very predictable, but other birds are erratic), but I'm not sure how different they are. Either way, you only need a more or less straight path for about 1 second, and you get multiple shots. Though if the drone is coming at you it still have momentum bringing it to you and shotguns don't have much range.
I could see this working as a reasonable shot with a shotgun - but I could also see how it couldn't and so I want someone in the military to tell me what works. (I'm willing to try on a range if you supply the drones - but at the price of drones I'm not willing to try this myself - and it goes without saying I'm not interested in going to a real battle field with all the other concerns that brings)
Someone should invent an absolutely minimal cost drone for short term flights at a person to practice shooting them down.
I don't want battery toxic waste all over my shooting range (lead is bad enough - I try to use lead free shot).
Meh, use a wire then. A one day class in wiring stuff means the range cadre can keep attaching wires to leads all day long.
It’s got a nice spread
Totally a keyboard warrior reply, but I suspect that since most of those videos show individual or pair of soldiers, its after their squad was destroyed and these guys are remainder. They probably also hear a lot of drones flying around during the day, so even if they are loud as hell, maybe you "get used" to it and don't react as quick.
Probably don't expect every soldier to carry shotguns so depending who survives the first contact, might not have a right weapon. Also I don't actually know what is Russian squads go to load-outs are. It would be interesting to know if Ukrainian squads who have western training keep up with similar load outs as touted by western armies (where people have roles and equipment to suit). But as we rarely see videos of successful interceptions, its probably not something Ukraine would be quick to share.
Take all this with a ton of salt though, I have no sources, just assumptions. Would be great to hear from professional soldiers with actual combat experience though.
Shotgun has a short effective range, about 70-100m depending of ammunition and gauge. If the drone explodes it still can hurt the shooter and people around. But, I guess it is a better option than just to wait for death.
The US Infantry already carries shotguns for breaching. So yes. Very feasible.
I wonder what fraction of a Ukrainian soldier's time is spent with occupied hands where they can't ready weapon and acquire target within a few seconds. Probably not too common in open battlefield, and you could have a designated drone spotter for those periods if that's not already a thing.
I've seen a video about an ammunition being developed to be adapted to the underbarrel grenade launcher. Problem is that it needs to be ready if you any chance at it, and you only have one chance.
Second problem is that most Russian soldiers are barely trained and equipped anyway, they're just litteral canon fodder. Elite troops certainly have something to fight drones, but I suspect jamming would be the first layer. The video we see are most probably against the canon fodder.
I made a relevant comment to someone else above, so I'll link that here. https://lemmy.zip/comment/14157725