As warfare transitions to cheap drones, the way to combat them are being perfected. But being able to handle the volume of drones meant to saturate defenses is also a problem.
The first batch of the Zubr anti-drone gun systems had been delivered to the Russian military, the state-owned tech corporation Rostec announced on January 28.
The system was developed by a subsidiary of the corporation, High-Precision Systems, especially to protect critical infrastructure facilities.
“The system independently detects a drone and takes it under automatic tracking. The operator only needs to make a decision and give the order to engage. The system demonstrated high effectiveness in combating small and high-speed targets during the tests,” said Rostec Arms Cluster Industrial Director, member of the Union of Russian Machine-Building Enterprises Bekkhan Ozdoyev in a statement published to Telegram.
The Zubr system is typically made up of four towed firing units, a control center, and its own radar station. Each of the firing units is equipped with its own electro-optical targeting system, and armed with four PKT or PKTM 7,62 mm machine guns.
Taking into account the type and caliber of the machine guns used in the Zubrit could be estimated that its effective range is around one kilometer. While this may seem not much, it is important to note that the system is designed as a last line of defense against drones when all over air defenses and electronic warfare means fail.
The newly delivered Zubr systems have already been deployed by the Russian military to protect infrastructure facilities, according to Rostech.
As Ukraine stepped up drone attacks on Russian territory in the last two years, the country began developing a wide range of anti-drone gun systems, some completely automated like the Zubr, even with artificial intelligence functions, and others controlled manually.
The Zubr is the first such system to be fielded by the Russian military. Many other systems will likely follow, especially ones armed with heavier machine guns.