Russia Built a Battering Ram Drone to Knock Drones out of the Sky

"It just rams the [drone] in the hope the damage is enough to bring it down."

Battering Ram

Russia just displayed a new battering ram-inspired drone designed to take out hostile quadrotor drones. The drone, which C4ISRNET describes as reminiscent of a cardboard toy rocket, flies up and collides with the hostile drone, hopefully nailing it hard enough to take it down.

The drone doesn't carry any payload other than its own bulk, which means it may be the first practical counter-drone technology that's cheaper to develop and deploy than the hostile drone was in the first place. You can see it in action at the 27:11 mark of this Russian counter-drone demonstration video.

Big Dumb Rocket

"This is a ‘dumb’ rocket that has navigation that lets it hone in on the drone but no explosives — it just rams the [drone] in the hope the damage is enough to bring it down," Virginia-based Center for Naval Analyses adviser Samuel Bendett told C4ISRNET.

Not only does that cut down on costs, but it also makes the drone more versatile. Because there's no explosion, it's safer to bludgeon down hostile drones than it is to launch a missile near friendly troops, Bendett explained.

READ MORE: If this rocket is so ‘dumb,’ how does it ram enemy drones out of the sky? [C4ISRNET]

More on drones: The British Military is Working on Anti-Aircraft Drone Swarms