During tests at the training ground, Russian military personnel tested handmade anti-drone cartridges of 12.7×108 mm caliber, developed for Kord, Utyos, and DShK heavy machine guns. The ammunition features a bullet in the form of a plastic capsule with buckshot inside, made on a 3D printer.
Firing was conducted in short bursts of five cartridges at a distance of 200 meters. Two buckshot pellets hit the paper target, and three more hit the lower part of the plywood shield. Previously, similar shotgun cartridges with a plastic bullet were tested in 5.45 mm caliber, but they have not yet received widespread use at the front.
Although the development is not factory-made, its advantage is low cost and the possibility of rapid production in the field. However, accuracy at a distance of 200 meters remains low, which limits their use. Nevertheless, the tests themselves confirm interest in cheap means of countering drones.
Previously, a 12.7 mm caliber cartridge with a finned bullet made of high-strength steel was proposed to combat UAVs, but the plastic version is significantly cheaper. It is not yet clear whether such cartridges will go into mass production or remain an experimental development.