This email has nothing to do with politics. At least, nothing to do with state level Second Amendment politics. But I saw this new weapons system and just had to send this email.
Maybe I’m just weird, but over the last two or three years I’ve thought about the idea of surviving a drone attack more than once.
It could be the videos that have been coming from the war in the Ukraine, the new man portable drone guns the Secret Service is fielding, or maybe it’s the recent action flicks I’ve seen.
Either way, I can’t help but wonder about it. And apparently, the engineers at Beretta have wondered about this, too.
And their solution is one of the wildest things I’ve seen in the firearms world in a long time. Beretta Defense Technologies has unveiled a counter-drone weapon system called LIVET.
At first glance, it looks like something that escaped from the set of Terminator.
This system takes eight Benelli M4 Drone Guardian 12-gauge shotguns, marries it to active radar, and mounts the whole thing on an AI-controlled turret designed specifically to defend against drone attacks!
Eight shotguns. On one turret.
And the automated tracking system can track a drone through the sky and keep that entire shotgun array pointed at it. It only engages once the drone is within 100 yards.
It’s a fantastic concept.
Small drones have fundamentally changed modern warfare. Ukraine has demonstrated just how dangerous inexpensive FPV drones can be against troops, vehicles and fixed positions.
And that has created an equally important problem: How do you economically shoot them down?
Some FPV drones can cost only a few hundred dollars. Firing a sophisticated missile costing tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars to destroy a $300 drone may work — but the economics are terrible.
A shotgun, on the other hand, has been knocking small, fast-moving targets out of the sky for well over a century.
Beretta’s idea is essentially to take that principle and drag it into the 21st century.
Instead of asking a human shooter to lead a tiny, rapidly moving drone with a single shotgun, the system handles the tracking electronically and brings eight semi-automatic 12-gauge shotguns to the fight.
The Benelli M4s themselves have also been adapted specifically for counter-drone use.
Beretta envisions LIVET primarily as the innermost layer of a larger defense system, engaging small drones at relatively short distances while longer-range threats are dealt with by other counter-UAS technology.
In other words, this isn’t supposed to replace missiles, electronic warfare, radar or other anti-drone systems.
It’s the final layer of defense when the drone gets through all of that.
Now for the real question? Can we afford to mount one of these on our back decks next to our grill? Well, I checked. But Beretta hasn’t announced a price. Odds are it won’t be affordable for engaging pheasants on your next hunting trip.
But whatever LIVET ultimately costs, the economics behind the concept are fascinating.
If the enemy can send a $300 drone toward you, spending $100,000 or more to destroy it just isn’t sustainable long term — even for America.
So Beretta has combined sophisticated sensors, computerized tracking and remote operation with one of the simplest solutions mankind has ever devised for hitting a small moving object in the air.
A 12-gauge shotgun. Well, eight of them. 😊
For Missouri,
Aaron Dorr
Political Director
Missouri Firearms Coalition
