Russia’s primary small arms manufacturer, Kalashnikov Concern, said on Thursday that it’s developing 5.45mm rifle rounds specifically designed to disable drones.
Though similar types of bullets have emerged sporadically on the Russian battlefield since last year, Kalashnikov Concern said it plans to mass-produce the rounds, formalizing a national effort to make drone-killing ammo for individual troops.
The armsmaker said the 30-round magazine is built for the AK-12 gas-operated assault rifle, with each bullet releasing a “multi-element projectile that significantly increases the probability of hitting UAVs.”
Kalashnikov Concern said the round can be used in burst and single-fire modes and was tested against a drone hovering in the air and another drone flying along a preset path.
Ukraine has been making its own anti-drone rifle rounds, with a bullet called the “Horoshok,” or “Little Pea,” that splits into multiple fragments to widen the area of impact. Kyiv said in December that it plans to produce 400,000 of these rounds a month.
The Ukrainian 5.56mm round, however, sees the bullet traveling some distance before it fragments — extending the range of the shot.
Kalashnikov Concern said in its announcement that the fragments of its bullets “systematically separated upon exiting the barrel” during tests against fast-moving small drones.
Some Russian units were thought to have first publicized the overall idea, such as one group of soldiers who filmed themselves in February 2025 using steel pellets and heat shrink tubes to convert 7.62mm rounds into makeshift shotgun shell-like bullets.
The entire concept calls back to the now-widespread use of shotguns in the Ukraine war as a final line of defense against first-person-view drone attacks. The tactic became especially popular as both sides started using fiber-optic drones, which can’t be remotely jammed.
The West is experimenting with anti-drone rifle rounds, too.
The US Navy’s Naval Surface Warfare Center, for example, said in February that it’s developing a “drone-killer cartridge” containing bullets that split into three fragments. Other American and European startups are selling their own versions of split-fragment rifle rounds.
Meanwhile, the concept is catching the eye of the larger defense industry. The Belgian arm of Thales, the French-headquartered prime, has been building a 70mm airburst rocket filled with steel pellets to counter one-way attack drones like the Shahed.
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