A US Military quadcopter engaged and destroyed a winged drone throughout an train at Fort Rucker, Alabama. Nowadays, that is not such a uncommon incidence, however this one is completely different – it is the primary that used a Claymore landmine strapped to the quad.
As stories from the Ukraine battle present, taking a drone and bolting a Claymore mine to it is not new. Each Ukrainian and Russian forces have carried out so on many events, however these have been to show the drones into steerable cluster bombs to assault personnel on the bottom.
Given {that a} Claymore is a curved block of C4 explosive with a layer of epoxy on the entrance embedded with about 700 ball bearings, the mine is a small, extremely deadly munition. It is easy to arrange and will be fired manually or by a visit wire to spray metal shrapnel is a 60-degree arc to a distance of 330 ft (100 m). It is so efficient that it and imitations have been a mainstay of many navy forces for nearly 70 years as a defensive or space denial weapon.
A Sky Soldier–flown FPV drone. A claymore mine. One midair kill. Over the skies of Fort Rucker, the 173rd Airborne Brigade, Pennsylvania Military Nationwide Guard, and DEVCOM AC’s Undertaking Shank made historical past with the Military’s first air-to-air kill by an armed FPV drone. pic.twitter.com/KXBa74LRj4
— 173rdAirborneBrigade (@173rdAbnBde) August 12, 2025
Right this moment, as a part of the US Military’s Undertaking Shank, the Military Fight Capabilities Improvement Command Armaments Heart (DEVCOM AC) is methods to develop small, cheap, transportable drones that may be managed by a single discipline operator. One results of this has been an FPV drone armed with a Claymore mine.
Just lately, over Tabernacle Subject at Fort Rucker, a winged 7.7-lb (3.5-kg) SkyRaider drone was deployed, adopted by the FPV quadcopter managed by CW2 Nathan Shea, a UAS operations officer with the Pennsylvania Nationwide Guard. Beneath Shea’s management, the quad hunted for after which pursued the SkyRaider. When in vary, the hearth command was given and the Claymore detonated.
The consequence was what can safely be known as overkill, like hitting a pigeon at level clean vary with buckshot – solely with so much fewer feathers. The SkyRaider was knocked out of the air and phone was momentarily misplaced with the quadcopter because of the huge recoil, although the little plane did survive and communications had been reestablished.
The last word aim is to enhance upon and combine classes realized from the Russian invasion of Ukraine and Center Jap conflicts, and incorporate these into US and NATO ways.
Supply: US Army
