United States military researchers have created a new type of grenade specifically intended to take down small enemy drones.
Business Insider reports that the grenades, which are likely to be used by both soldiers and law enforcement, can be fired from standard grenade launchers. They split apart midair and a tightly-packed net is released which ensnares a drone’s propellers and takes it out.
A US patent filed by the military shows the design of the grenade below.
The patent filing from the military of their net grenade in action.
In modern warfare, small, quadcopter drones are becoming an increasingly important tool for surveillance, taking out your enemies communication capabilities or dropping small munitions.
In testing, the grenade has been shown to outperform other anti-drone methods such as drone-operated drag nets which require a pilot to outmaneuver enemy drones. The other big advantage of this new system is it is far more cost-effective than firing weapons or missiles and just one net is capable of taking out multiple drones in a swarm.
If this solution is rolled out across US forces in future, soldiers are likely to carry dozens of these grenades which could take down drones from hundreds of yards away. We’d love to see whether a top drone pilot would have a quick enough reaction speed to try and avoid a rapidly oncoming drone net (cool idea for a future YouTube video!)
With relatively limited range, this type of grenade will only be effective against standard-sized drones and will be no match for formidable, predator drones. Those are the drones you should really be freaked out by.
Net grenades won’t be stopping the likes of a General Atomic Predator drone anytime soon
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