The simplest weapons can's be written off. Ukraine's defense strategy shows that shotguns, long considered obsolete, are proving effective against small, fast, and lethal FPV drones, Defence Blog reports, Defence Blog reports.
Ukraine is the only country in Europe with experience in modern warfare. It has already integrated shotguns into drone‑defense systems and is teaching NATO countries how to defend against Russia's drone attacks.
For instance, Kyiv has developed a new counter-drone platform dubbed Winchester, equipped with twin shotguns to intercept enemy drones. This innovation adds to Ukraine's growing counter-drone arsenal, alongside widely used FPV drone interceptors and less common drone-deployed nets for capturing enemy drones.
Ukraine trains 400 fighters to shoot down FPV drones with shotguns
The Ukrainian Armed Forces were among the first to officially introduce shotguns into drone‑countermeasure systems: the 413th Separate Raid Battalion of the Unmanned Aviation Forces created a special program — nearly 400 soldiers completed the course in seven months.
The logic is simple: a shotgun’s spread increases the chance of hitting a small, fast‑moving drone in the final second before impact, when other countermeasures may fail.
Zelenskyy at EU summit in Copenhagen: Russia’s ambition to divide Europe is clear
Experts: Ukraine’s lessons are “crucial” for NATO
Marco Angelelli, a shooting instructor and president of FITAV’s Commission for Relations with the Armed Forces, stressed that lessons from the Ukrainian experience are crucial for European militaries and NATO forces.
He also claimed that the Ukrainian experience in battling drones could be very useful in training other armies.
Angelelli noted that Italy has already begun equipping its troops with Benelli M4 AI Drone Guard shotguns and opened a C‑UAS/FPV shotgun training school in Pisa.
The shotgun — a last line of defense in a layered C‑UAS system
Experts insist on a multilayered approach: early‑warning sensors, jammers, directed‑energy systems, and kinetic measures.
In this context, the shotgun appears as an inexpensive, available, and effective option—especially as a final line of defense for soldiers protecting trenches, equipment, or command posts.
Angelelli warns that shotguns “are certainly not the solution to countering FPV drones,” but "when integrated into a multi-layered defense system," they are an effective response, especially as a last resort for "soldiers to defend their own lives."
A strong rebuttal to skeptics: battlefield realities
Skeptics call the idea primitive, but battlefield realities tell a different story: FPV drones have become one of the main threats in the conflict.
As Angelelli noted that "in the Ukrainian conflict, 80% of military casualties were due to these types of attacks,” so soldiers should carry a primary weapon against drones (a shotgun) and a secondary anti‑personnel weapon.