On November 1, the official government newspaper that “The new LPD-802 anti-drone rifle, capable of suppressing American UAVs [drones], is being tested in Russia.”
In Iran, the government news agency the same day.
Meantime, a blog close to the Russian Defense Ministry called “Defense and Offense” posted a video captioned: “. Russia has used an emitter of invisible waves LPD-802,” which also showcased the rifle.
Another popular blog, “,” with more than 131,000 followers on the Russian messaging app vKontakte, wrote the following under the headline “”:
Those claims are exaggerated. Instead, the run of posts about a new drone-killing super rifle appears to be a rejoinder to news reports of in knocking down dozens of that in swarming attacks.
In fact, analysts say, the Russian weapon is a close-range (up to 1.5 km or 0.93 miles) light rifle with limited batteries (90 minutes). It can be used to disrupt small drones, not “any” drones.
The developer of the LPD-802 rifle, the St. Petersburg-based company Laboratory PPS, presented it as an upgraded model during a late October weapons exposition in Moscow. The .
, an analyst with the Russia Studies Program at the U.S. Center for Naval Analysis, told Polygraph.info that the LPD-802 “is a close-range weapon that has limited power,” for use “against quadcopters, and small and light [drones].”
work by used for remote control. A popular Russian military vlogger, , said in a review of the LPD-802 that using the rifle was like playing a video game; the operator aims and pulls a trigger, and the weapon jams the drone’s signals and communications.
Russia and Ukraine each have fielded an array of drones for use in reconnaissance and direct attacks. Turkish-built Bayraktar drones supplied to Ukraine can fly at 25,000 feet for 27 hours and drop laser-guided bombs. Norway and the U.K. donated tiny micro-drones that fit in a soldier’s hand, .
That kind of diversity in capability makes it unlikely that a single super-rifle can take on all of Ukraine’s drones.
, a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, tracks weapons used in Ukraine by both sides. “These [Russian drone] guns are fairly short-range and very unlikely to be effective against the U.S. UAVs, like .”
this month suggest that the drones to Ukraine. Advocating for such a move, recently wrote:
Meantime, Ukraine has been effectively using to shoot down and capture small Russian drones, like the China-made quadcopters both sides use for reconnaissance and to deliver small explosives.
showed in a video posted in September on YouTube how anti-drone guns “instantly” disrupt a target's control systems, after which the drone can be captured or destroyed.