Vepr

C4ISRNET reports that on 12 March 2019, Russia’s Federal Service for Intellectual Property posted the registration of a novel counter-drone drone, an unmanned aerial interceptor vehicle built around a rifle. According to the news service: “This still-unmanned interceptor is a tail-sitting drone. With two rotors, it can take off and land vertically, and then level off to fly horizontally, the lifting rotors now working as propellers. It has a wingspan of nearly 10 feet, a total weight of around 51 lbs, and a total flight time of 40 minutes. The flight time is short for vehicles of its size but longer than that of the cheaper commercial quadcopters that are its likely targets. Once it gets close to those targeted drones, the interceptor is built to fire shells from the Vepr 12 shotgun (a variant of the AK rifle series) built into its fuselage.”