China's New Weapon Against Drone Swarms, Missile Barrage

A Chinese designer has unveiled a new weapon that fires multiple shots simultaneously to strike at drone swarms and missile barrage overturning the concept of air-defense weapons such as the Russian Pantsir-S that fires one shot-per-target.

The innovative barrage weapon system, claimed to be the first of its kind in the world, named the "anti-drone-swarm-and-anti-missile-barrage-weapon-system," is featured in the April edition of the China-based semi-official Modern Weaponry magazine.

Yu Bin, the chief designer of the system, told the magazine that the "barrage" weapon shoots a wall of projectiles at the incoming targets, achieving a higher success rate against the swarm than conventional air defense guns that use the concept of "point to point" interception meaning one shot per target.

However in the new Chinese air-defense system,  multiple guns fire together raising fire density and probability of interception.The magazine features a prototype of the weapon having 16 tightly packed gun barrels that fire "unique munitions."

Yu said that this close-in air defense barrage system is characterized by its fast reload speed, high fire density, controllable barrage size, outstanding destructive power and capability to accompany troops in maneuvers.

Currently available air defense weapons have shortcomings in countering drone swarms, as they lack sufficient capability to deal with saturation attacks and suffer from low cost-efficiency. However, the new equipment does not have these shortcomings, Yu said.

The barrage weapon system has conducted multiple demonstrations against drone swarms, and the results showed that it can shoot down all small-sized drones with a single barrage, Yu said.

In addition to drone swarms, the barrage weapon can also intercept high speed air-launched munitions such as missiles. It can also counter rockets, mortar shells and howitzer shells, according to Yu.

While the primary targets of the barrage weapon are incoming aerial targets such as drone swarms, fixed wing aircraft, helicopters and cruise missiles, among others, it is also possible to attack ground or water surface targets when necessary, he said.

The chief designer added that the system is also modularized, making it possible to be installed on trucks, tracked or wheeled armored vehicles, as well as warships.