U.S. Military Tests New Drone Round Ammunition: NATO Rifles Instantly Become "Anti-Drone Shotguns"
DroneRoundDefense has launched a new type of ammunition called "DroneRound" that allows standard NATO-caliber rifles to be quickly converted into weapons specifically designed to counter small drones, combining the area effect of a shotgun with the rate of fire and power of a rifle.
In shooting circles, there has long been the concept of "varmint rounds," specialized ammunition specifically used to eliminate non-game "pests" such as prairie dogs, ground squirrels, coyotes, foxes, and rabbits. These animals often harm agricultural production, ecological management, and even pose a potential threat to personal safety. These varmint rounds are typically small-caliber, high-velocity rounds with strong killing power and a low risk of ricocheting.
Within varmint rounds, there is a further subdivision that does not use traditional single bullets, but instead loads multiple small lead pellets inside a plastic compartment within the cartridge. When fired, these pellets spread out in the air, creating a shotgun-like area effect. This type of ammunition can be loaded into ordinary revolvers, giving them "small shotgun" functionality, making it particularly useful when dealing with small, fast-moving targets that require a "one-shot kill." The author of the article even mentions carrying this type of ammunition when hiking in areas with rattlesnakes, to deal with "venomous reptile threats."
This idea has been directly applied to the field of anti-drone warfare: for first-person view (FPV) suicide drones and commercial quadcopters, a single shotgun blast is often enough to cause fatal damage. However, not every infantryman can carry an extra shotgun, and shotguns themselves have inherent limitations in terms of limited power and slow rate of fire. Even semi-automatic shotguns struggle to compete with standard rifles.
To address this, Drone Round Defense developed Drone Round, which transforms 5.56x45mm and 7.62x51mm NATO standard rifle cartridges into a "multi-pellet" structure. Visually, this ammunition is indistinguishable from ordinary rifle cartridges, but it encapsulates 5 to 8 small sub-bullets internally, which spread out during flight and can shoot down small drones at a range of approximately 50 to 100 meters (164 to 328 feet), with the specific range varying depending on the model.
The dispersion of multiple pellets significantly increases the probability of hitting a drone, while the use of a NATO standard cartridge case ensures single-shot energy. The company claims that this combination has a "hit volume" approximately twice that of a shotgun, meaning that even a single small pellet hitting the target can have devastating consequences. Combined with the theoretical rate of fire of up to 950 rounds per minute for standard assault rifles, and a sustained output of approximately 90 rounds per minute in burst mode, infantry can create a dense "lead storm" in a very short time to suppress approaching drones.
Visually, Drone Round is almost indistinguishable from ordinary NATO cartridges, making it easy to integrate directly into existing troop logistics systems. Tactically, this means that an infantry squad can complete the role switch from conventional rifle fire to anti-drone fire simply by changing magazines in a matter of seconds. In addition, this ammunition can be used with belt-fed weapons such as the M4 carbine and is compatible with suppressors, allowing for long-duration continuous firing without any physical modification to the weapon.
Against this technological backdrop, the U.S. military has begun organizing troops to conduct unit-level familiarization training with Drone Round, indicating that the system has progressed from concept verification to actual deployment. Drone Round Defense positions this ammunition in its official materials as a "plug-and-play" defensive solution for frontline troops facing low-altitude, small drone threats.