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Russia to Deploy Mobile Anti-Aircraft Gun Units to Counter Ukrainian Drones

ZU-23-2 anti-aircraft guns. Image: Creative Commons

The Russian military is forming mobile anti-aircraft gun units to protect ground troops from drone attacks.

Each will have a truck-mounted ZU-23-2 anti-aircraft cannon as a cheaper counter-drone option to the guided missiles/rockets-based short-range air defense systems, Izvestia revealed, citing sources.

Additionally, it will have electronic warfare equipment and smoke production vehicles to disable unmanned aerial systems, the Russian state-backed outlet added.

Wall of Bullets

Inducted in the 1960s, the 23mm twin-barrel ZU-23-2 is designed to protect low-moving and stationary objects from aerial attacks with a rate of fire of up to 2,000 rounds per minute.

“We have Shilka complexes with four twin 23-mm cannons that work as a single unit,” Izvestia quoted military expert Alexei Leonkov as saying. 

“They can put up a fire curtain that no drone can fly through.” 

The ZU-23-2 has a firing range of 2.5 kilometers (2 miles), which necessitates an accompanying drone-detection mechanism, Leonkov added.

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