The Russian military is forming mobile anti-aircraft gun units to protect ground troops from drone attacks.
Each will have a truck-mounted ZU-23-2 anti-aircraft cannon as a cheaper counter-drone option to the guided missiles/rockets-based short-range air defense systems, Izvestia revealed, citing sources.
Additionally, it will have electronic warfare equipment and smoke production vehicles to disable unmanned aerial systems, the Russian state-backed outlet added.
Wall of Bullets
Inducted in the 1960s, the 23mm twin-barrel ZU-23-2 is designed to protect low-moving and stationary objects from aerial attacks with a rate of fire of up to 2,000 rounds per minute.
“We have Shilka complexes with four twin 23-mm cannons that work as a single unit,” Izvestia quoted military expert Alexei Leonkov as saying.
“They can put up a fire curtain that no drone can fly through.”
The ZU-23-2 has a firing range of 2.5 kilometers (2 miles), which necessitates an accompanying drone-detection mechanism, Leonkov added.
