Northrop Grumman Vice President Steve O’Bryan said the Ukrainians value the system and want greater range so they can intercept drones further out. “They love the (anti-drone) system. They want more range because they want to shoot these things down further out, which completely makes sense… So we’re taking that feedback,” he told Reuters on the sidelines of the Warsaw Security Forum.
The firm’s Bushmaster cannon currently fires 25-40 millimetre rounds and can engage drones up to about three miles, and the company is looking at increasing the calibre to 50 millimetre or higher to broaden that range. “They’ve (Ukrainians) asked: Hey, we need a higher calibre so it goes further. And that’s what we’re working on right now. We’re in test on that,” O’Bryan said.
O’Bryan described the Bushmaster as a chain-driven gun that can fire multiple rounds per second to hit numerous targets attacking in swarms and stressed the relative cost advantage of bullets over interceptor missiles. “Not every target is a Patriot target, right? There’s two things with that. One is Patriot missiles are expensive… Even if they weren’t expensive, they’re a low-density weapon. There’s just not that many of them,” he said.
He added that expensive interceptors should be conserved for the highest-value threats and highlighted the company’s use of proximity ammunition to destroy drones without requiring a direct hit. “You need to save them for the targets that demand the Patriot missile,” O’Bryan said. “We’ve got to get on the right side of that cost exchange ratio curve, where we shoot a cheaper round than the drone,” he added. “And I think this is one of those solutions that can do it. So, even if you have to fire multiple rounds, you’re still going to be on the positive side of that.”
Ukraine has been adapting its air defences since Russia’s invasion in 2022 to counter increasingly large raids that can include hundreds of drones at a time.
Source: Reuters.
