Military expert Kirill Ryumshin — on how the developments of the "civilian defense industry complex" help protect important facilities from UAVs
For a long time, it was believed that the rear facilities were reliably covered by the global "umbrella" of air defense. Reality has made adjustments. Standard air defense systems designed to intercept aircraft and cruise missiles are not always able to provide one hundred percent protection against a new threat — modern attack drones. The reason lies in their hybrid nature.
Aircraft-type UAVs loaded with explosives move according to satellite navigation signals at ultra-low altitudes, using terrain folds. Their favorite time of attack is dusk or the dead of night, when visual detection is difficult. For radars, such targets — low—visibility, low-flying, and low-speed - often merge with interference from the ground or urban development. Spending an expensive anti-aircraft missile on a cheap plywood and plastic "glider" is irrational, and sometimes technically impossible due to the limited radio signal horizon.
A popular solution — camouflage nets or cable barriers, for example, over the territories of oil refineries and substations — has proved ineffective in practice. A heavy attack drone has the kinetic energy of a light-engine aircraft. This pulse is enough to break through almost any textile or wire fabric and work normally when hitting the main object.
The second way is capital construction: the construction of concrete sarcophagi, hangars and blank walls. But economics and logistics make this task almost impossible. Such construction is expensive and takes a long time. Moreover, at existing enterprises — refineries or thermal power plants — large-scale construction is often technically impossible. The density of communications, high-pressure pipelines and strict industrial safety regulations will not allow everything to be filled with concrete.
In the current situation, mobile fire brigades (MOG), which have already been established, for example, in the Kursk region as part of the Bars-Kursk brigade and in a number of other regions, have become the most viable, fastest and economically justified solution. Their tactics are based not on passive waiting, but on active perimeter patrolling and physical destruction of the threat on approach using small arms.
The basis of such a unit is a maneuverable off—road vehicle (pickup truck) and a machine-gun crew in the back. The historical parallel with the legendary "wheelbarrow" suggests itself, but the modern embodiment of this concept has gone far ahead. This is not just a fighter with a machine gun in the back of a truck. The specifics of working on high-speed aerial targets impose strict, specific requirements on equipment, which the standard army nomenclature of property cannot cover.
In order for these drone hunters to work effectively, engineers and gunsmiths had to solve three key technical problems.
The first is the stability of the platform. Shooting at a flying drone is fundamentally different from combined-arms combat. The standard bipods of the Kalashnikov machine gun (PKM) or "Pecheneg" are designed for firing lying down, with an emphasis on the ground. It is physically impossible to hit a drone flying at an altitude of 50-100 m from this position.
Shooting with hands or with support on the side of the car is also ineffective: the recoil of the cartridge and the vibration of the running engine do not allow you to keep the aiming line. The solution was specialized turrets and tripods with universal adapters. The equipment is rigidly fixed in the back of the pickup truck or on the ground, providing the system with monolithic stability. Thanks to the articulated mechanisms, the shooter gets the opportunity to conduct smooth accompanying fire in any sector — 360 degrees horizontally and almost vertically to the zenith.
The second is the ergonomics of fire. In situations where the tactical situation requires mobility and firing without a machine (for example, when dismounting), the standard ergonomics of a machine gun becomes an obstacle. The classic layout is not designed to quickly change the vector of attack on aerial targets from the hands.
Russian engineers have implemented elements of modern tuning into the design: tactical handguards and fire transfer handles. These seemingly small things allow a fighter to reliably control heavy weapons, extinguish the barrel roll and instantly move the aiming point after the maneuvering object. The controllability of the weapon is directly converted into the density and accuracy of the fire.
The third is night blindness and the thermal imaging factor. This is perhaps the most critical aspect. Since the enemy prefers to attack at night, the thermal imager becomes the main detection tool for the mobile group. It allows you to see the heated drone engine in complete darkness.
However, there is a technical conflict here. When a machine gun is fired, a powerful muzzle flash is formed. To the human eye, it's just a bright light, but to the sensitive matrix of a thermal imaging sight, it's a "light stroke." The electronics instantly "go blind", the picture is blocked by illumination, and the operator loses sight of the target. While the device's vision is restored, the drone manages to leave the affected area or strike.
The solution came from the world of sports shooting — muzzle compensator brakes (DTCs) of a closed type, called banks in professional slang. Such a device is screwed onto the barrel and works as a gas afterburning chamber. It effectively extinguishes the flash by breaking up and cooling the powder gases inside the case. The result: the thermal imager does not lose the picture, the shooter maintains continuous visual contact with the object and can fire in bursts without losing orientation.
It is important to note that today we are not talking about artisanal alterations in garage workshops. Russian manufacturers offer full-fledged ecosystems for mobile groups: from DTCs that have passed rigorous tests on the line of combat contact to integrated weapon mounting and stabilization systems.
By providing groups with everything they need, from tripods to flame arresters, the domestic industry helps to create layered defenses around critical infrastructure facilities. In 2025, the total number of critically important facilities in Russia reached 3,000, with about 70% of them related to the energy sector. To protect them, high—quality equipment for mobile groups is no longer a matter of choosing options, but a necessary condition for survival and uninterrupted operation.
The author is the head of the company's tests Zavoz.pro, a manufacturer of military equipment
The editorial board's position may not coincide with the author's opinion.
