A new type of rifle bullet in Ukraine could give infantry a better way to survive unjammable drone attacks

Matthew Loh

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Drone warfare is driving the creation of a new type of bullet in the Ukraine war.

A Ukrainian version is designed to fire from a NATO rifle and spread pellets to kill drones from afar.

With unjammable drones on the battlefield, troops need ways to defend themselves with physical force.

Anti-drone rifle bullets are emerging in the Ukraine war, potentially giving ground troops a safer option against the cheap drones that are now the battlefield's No. 1 killer.

While Russian troops were seen experimenting with such ammo since at least last year's winter, Ukraine's defense innovation program debuted its own version in late June.

Brave1 published a video of a soldier filling a cartridge with black and grey-tipped 5.56mm rounds, before loading it into a CZ Bren 2 assault rifle and firing at a drone in a test range.

"The goal is for every infantryman to carry these NATO-codified cartridges, enabling them to react quickly to aerial threats," the government organization wrote, adding that the bullets "dramatically increase the chances of downing FPV drones."

However, United24 Media, an outlet run by the Ukrainian government, wrote that the bullets use a "custom-designed warhead that creates a dense and rapid fragmentation effect upon firing."

In short, the tech would allow soldiers to fire a bullet that travels some distance before dispersing a spread of pellets to strike a first-person-view drone or quadcopter.

That could allow infantry to start shooting at attack drones from a safer distance, compared to the last-resort measure of trying to down the threat with a shotgun, which is now the norm across Ukrainian units.