Shotguns Ineffective Against 15-Inch FPV Drones Due to the Risk of a Powerful Warhead Detonating at Close Range

Military experts warn that smoothbore shotguns are becoming less effective against new types of Russian FPV drones. Overly high expectations regarding the use of shotguns on the front lines are already leading to casualties among Ukrainian Defense Forces personnel.

Roman Donik, head of the training and instruction group at the 151st Training Center of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, reported the issue. His findings were also confirmed and supplemented by the authors of the About Weapons specialized Telegram channel.

Russian invaders have started deploying large 15-inch fiber-optic FPV drones in certain sectors of the front.

These drones carry a powerful high-explosive warhead that is nearly identical in weight and explosive power to the TM-62 anti-tank mine.

There have been documented instances where Russian operators guided these UAVs through openings in protective netting and directed them directly over roads.

According to Roman Donik, a distance of 10–15 meters is life-threatening for a soldier. The high inertia and significant energy of the explosive leave the shooter with no chance of survival if the UAV detonates nearby.

The situation is complicated by the fact that Ukrainian troops are often issued ammunition with shot that is too fine to stop a heavy aerial target.

The authors of the About Weapons channel note that current army manuals still recommend shooting at drones with No. 1–5 shot. However, this advice was developed at a time when most enemy drones were lightweight 7-inch FPV drones or reconnaissance quadcopters like the Mavic.

With the emergence of large combat drones, the safe distance for shooting down an aerial target is now at least 40–50 meters.

In the presence of large drones, military personnel are advised to fire exclusively from standard automatic rifled weapons while remaining in cover.

It is much easier to hit a large 15-inch drone with a rifled weapon at ranges of 50 to 100 meters.

However, there have been cases where mobile fire teams do not carry automatic weapons at all, relying entirely on shotguns.