Or just be like US and (potentially) add a mini gun.
PLA Next Generation Main Battle Tank
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There is no need for rifle caliber when a bird shot do the job. There is actually modified rifle rounds in Russia loaded with bird shots for drones, but I think dedicated shotgun slug is more suitable.
Bird shot has an effective range of about 30~40m.
Rifle calibre is out to hundreds of meters - but actual effectiveness against maneuvering target may be up to a couple hundred metres.
Choice is dependent on portage ability, stability of firing platform and desired engagement parameters.
It can go over a hundred easily, and that is good enough for a drone trying to get into contact range.
Why a rifle or birdshot in the first place and not a low caliber autocannon with programmable airburst rounds, these would have both good range and high lethality against drones and even double as anti-infantry. US is testing similar solutions as a anti-drone weapon.
Sure, if it is primary armament.
But putting an ac on a rws (along with associated scan-track hardware) on a mbt is a big ask
I was hoping you'd provide an example ...
That's not true, demonstrators like the Leopard 2 A-RC uses a RWS with a 30mm autocannon firing programmable ammo quite alot of other 4th generation prototypes have also used coax or RWS autocannons. Drone detection and targeting hardware will be required no matter what kind of solution you use whether birdshot, autocannon, standard heavy machine gun or even directed energy weapon.
Inertia, available ammo on the mount. It doesn't take much to kill a drone, and local problem isn't only drones you can engage from afar; those can be dealt with.
There's also a problem of ohshit ones.
At the moment, it seems to me that optimum is either a really low energy automatic gun, or ideally infantry caliber MG with selective feed (Ukrainian war style shrapnel/multiple bullet shots as backup).
Ask yourself this question, are you ok if I shoot you 40m away using birdshot? If your answer is no, then you have your answer.
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