A company called Drone Round Defense has launched a new type of ammunition called "Drone Round". By simply changing the magazine, a standard NATO-caliber rifle can be transformed into a weapon specifically designed to deal with small drones, combining the area-killing effect of a shotgun with the rate of fire and power of a rifle.
In the shooting circle, there has long been the concept of the so-called "varmint round", which is a special ammunition specially used to remove non-prey "small pests" such as prairie dogs, ground squirrels, coyotes, foxes, and hares. These animals often endanger agricultural production, ecological management, and even pose potential threats to personal safety. This type of pest bullet is usually a small-caliber, high-muzzle-velocity bullet with high lethality and low ricochet risk.
There is also a subcategory of pest bombs that do not use a traditional single warhead. Instead, a small plastic cabin is installed inside the projectile body, which contains multiple small lead bullets. When launched, they will spread out in the air, forming a covering and killing effect similar to shotguns. This type of ammunition can be loaded into ordinary revolvers, giving it the function of a "small shotgun", which is especially useful when facing small, fast targets that must be "hit with one shot." The author of the article even mentioned that he also carries this type of ammunition when hiking in areas where rattlesnakes are infested, in order to deal with the "reptile threat with fangs."
This idea has been directly applied to the field of anti-drone combat: for first-person perspective (FPV) suicide drones and commercial quad-rotor drones, one shot is often enough to cause fatal damage. But in reality, not every infantryman can carry an additional shotgun, and shotguns themselves have natural shortcomings such as limited power and slow rate of fire. Even semi-automatic shotguns are difficult to compare with standard rifles.
To this end, the Drone Round developed by Drone Round Defense transforms the 5.56×45 mm and 7.62×51 mm NATO standard rifle rounds into a “multi-projectile” structure. In appearance, this ammunition is no different from ordinary rifle bullets, but it contains 5 to 8 small pellets packed inside. It will disperse in flight after being fired and can shoot down small drones at a distance of about 50 to 100 meters (164 to 328 feet), depending on the specific model.
The spread of multiple projectiles significantly increases the probability of hitting the drone, while the use of NATO standard shells ensures the energy of a single shot. Officials claim that the "strike volume" of this combination is about twice that of a shotgun, which means that even if only one small projectile hits the target, it may have devastating consequences. Coupled with the theoretical rate of fire of a standard assault rifle, which can reach up to 950 rounds per minute, and the continuous output of about 90 rounds per minute in burst mode, the infantry can form a dense "storm of lead bullets" in a very short time to suppress approaching drones.
In appearance, Drone Round is almost indistinguishable from ordinary NATO ammunition, making it easy to integrate directly into the army’s existing logistics system. At a tactical level, this means that an infantry squad can complete the role switch from conventional rifle fire to anti-drone fire in seconds by simply changing magazines. In addition, this ammunition can also be used with belt-fed weapons such as M4 carbines, and is compatible with silencers. It can achieve long-term continuous shooting without any physical modifications to the weapon.
Against this technical background, the US military has begun organizing troops to conduct unit-level familiarization training with Drone Round, indicating that the system has advanced from concept verification to the actual deployment stage. Drone Round Defense, in its official information, positions this ammunition as a "plug-and-play" defense solution for frontline troops facing threats from low-altitude small drones.
