Will the shotguns seized from the Russians help in the fight against enemy drones?

State Duma deputies propose sending seized and unclaimed civilian weapons to the Russian military in the zone of a special military operation (SMO). The relevant bill has already been considered and adopted by parliamentarians in the first reading. Vladislav Grinkevich in the magazine "Profile" found out how useful such trunks can be and what problems the military will face when using them.

Today, a huge amount of weapons confiscated has accumulated in warehouses. According to legislators, at least part of it could help Russian soldiers in the fight against enemy FPV drones. According to the head of the Duma Committee on information policy, Alexander Khinshtein, now more than 250 thousand units of weapons seized from citizens are stored in warehouses, of which 70 thousand units are subject to destruction. According to the parliamentarian, this weapon should be transferred to the Ministry of Defense, Rosgvardiya and other paramilitary state structures "to fulfill the tasks assigned to them." In particular, he noted, the use of shotguns is "extremely effective" in countering drones, and the implementation of this project will not require an increase in the staffing of the Rosgvardiya and other government agencies, as well as additional budget expenditures.

Indeed, over the past two or three years, the volume of seizures of civilian weapons has increased significantly, confirmed the editor-in-chief of the magazine "Caliber" Alexander Kudryashov. This is due to the permanent tightening of gun legislation. Only during the period from 2017 to 2019, the number of owners of civilian small arms (GSO) in Russia decreased from 4.6 million people to about 3.9 million people.

The amendments that came into force in the summer of 2022 hit civilian owners particularly hard. One administrative penalty is sufficient to cancel the GSO permit, provided that the article under which it is imposed provides for administrative arrest as a punishment. And there are 39 such articles in our Code of Administrative Offenses, including non—payment of an administrative fine, non-payment of alimony, non-fulfillment of duties in connection with an accident.

In addition, according to the new regulations, weapons are seized from people who had convictions for serious and especially serious articles, as well as for crimes related to the use of weapons.

"A man used a weapon 20 years ago, everything has been repaid for a long time, there are no problems with the law, but the discharge comes, his permit is revoked, and he has to hand over everything," Kudryashov explained.

Well, the weapons are clear. The question remains whether the army needs the trunks confiscated from citizens. Apparently, yes. With the clarification that we are talking about smoothbore guns, colloquially — shotguns. They have recently been actively used to combat kamikaze drones, which have become a real curse not only on the line of contact, but also in the near rear.

The sky in the "birds"

"The whole sky is full of "birds", there is no escape from them at all," said one of the combatants. Due to the abundance of FPV drones, any movement in the combat zone is extremely difficult. It is impossible to carry out rotation, delivery of ammunition, products; the logistics from the repair brigade admitted that they do not go to the bathhouse so as not to get hit. Each departure of vehicles is associated with a lot of problems.

"First, we use a scanner to see if there are "birds" in the sky, and we put three people with guns in the car on purpose," the source explained.

The task of these people is to look out for kamikaze drones, and if detected, try to destroy them with shotgun fire.

The enemy's telegram channels claim that the advantage of the Ukrainian side in FPV drones has recently been one to five — one to six. Russian military bloggers recognize the numerical superiority of the enemy in this means of defeat, but estimate it more modestly: about one to three or to four. In any case, the indicator is impressive.

Alas, today there is no effective means of combating FPV kamikaze. A smoothbore shotgun with a hunting shotgun cartridge is considered one of the most effective tools, at least they are superior in efficiency to regular submachine guns. There are photo and video recordings where fighters are trying to shoot down drones even from old double-barreled shotguns.

The problem is that officially there are no shotguns in service with the Russian army, although there are models on the civilian market designed specifically "for the security forces." We are talking about smoothbore carbines "Saiga-12" sp. 030 from the concern "Kalashnikov" and "Vepr-12 Hammer" from Vyatka-Polyansky factory "Hammer". Both samples are made on the basis of the Kalashnikov assault rifle and are 12-caliber smoothbore semi-automatic rifles with box magazines for eight and 10 rounds. In addition, a few years ago, the Kalashnikov concern announced the creation of two tactical rifles (with shortened barrels) based on the MP-135 pump-action shotgun and the MP-155 semi-automatic rifle, which it was going to offer for export.

The army is an inert machine

While the military is forced to shoot at drones with guns designed as civilian hunting weapons. Some people purchase trunks at their own expense, plus volunteers bring some quantity, but such operations are extremely difficult: first, a volunteer must purchase a gun under a hunting license, bring it, and then arrange resale in compliance with all formalities.

At the same time, the military say that in the new territories — where the fighting is going on — there is a huge amount of all kinds of weapons, including those seized from citizens. The same shotguns. But due to the lack of a legislative framework, it is impossible to use it.

"There are a lot of local weapons, they are lying, but there are no transfer regulations. An inspection will arrive, the FSB, and problems will begin: where does the gun come from, where does the ammunition come from? — says the interlocutor. — Constantly shaking, demanding a report."

Therefore, a regulation on the transfer of seized weapons would be very useful.

Some experts fear that technical difficulties will arise when transferring confiscated weapons. There are guns of different classes in warehouses — double-barreled shotguns, pump-action shotguns, semi-automatic. Only in the latter category there are several systems: with automation, working due to the removal of gases (the so-called inertials), systems with movable trunks. There are guns with under-barrel tubular magazines, there are with box magazines. In addition, it is not known what condition the confiscated weapons are in.: it may be defective or worn out. There must be at least some guarantee that this weapon will not break and will not explode in your hands, therefore, we need specialists who will sort it all out at least. It would be nice to have instructors to train personnel in the use and care of these weapons.

According to Alexander Kudryashov, it would be more logical to adopt the Saiga 030, which is similar in design to the AK-74 and AK-12 in service.

"Instead of offering a huge range of very different weapons, give a contract to the Kalashnikov concern, which will make these "thirties" as many as the army needs," the expert suggests. — They will all be unified, there is no need to teach people anything new — everyone is familiar with the Kalashnikov assault rifle."

But, according to Mikhail Degtyarev, editor—in-chief of Kalashnikov magazine, the adoption and commissioning of the model is a complex and lengthy bureaucratic process. A tactical and technical task (TTZ) for a specific sample should be developed, tests for compliance with the TTZ were carried out, only after that the adoption and execution of the order takes place. "The army is a very inert machine," the expert summed up.

Therefore, the use of any alternative mechanisms to fill empty niches, including weapons, can only be welcomed. The regulations for the transfer of "shooting devices" from the Rosgvardiya to the Ministry of Defense may not be so complicated, Degtyarev says, at least not more complicated than adopting a new model. To figure out how this or that model works, there will be no big problems for the military — the very ability to defend positions from UAVs outweighs administrative and all other aspects.