LazerBuzz creator: our goal is to provide an affordable laser anti-drone weapon for the Russian military.
As for small arms, there's a common belief that specialized ammunition is effective against drones. It's also believed that shot from a hunting rifle can be effective against drones. I've watched countless tests. Even clay pigeon shooting specialists, accustomed to shooting at clay pigeons, have very poor records. For example, there's a video online of a Russian clay pigeon shooting champion attempting to shoot down five drones, and he only managed to shoot down one drone so that it fell a few meters away rather than at his feet. And this is our best shooter, who isn't nervous during the shooting and knows he won't be killed.
Therefore, countering FPV drones is our priority, but automation is essential. At the very beginning, we tested the idea that if we took a very powerful source and made it into a beam gun, a human could counter the drones by shooting them from a handheld or tripod. In reality, this idea proved untenable, as the shooter was good at target acquisition during testing, but became nervous during the demonstration, resulting in unconvincing results. Consistent results are highly dependent on human error and luck. If we're developing a system to counter UAVs, this is unacceptable.
— In how many seconds should the laser installation within the "Staff" project ideally be able to destroy an FPV drone?
"The time from detecting an object to its complete destruction must be three seconds. As for the effective range, for laser systems that can be made compact, it's 600-700 meters. The three-second kill speed is due to the fact that the worst-case scenario is the drone's battery catching fire. If we shoot down a drone and hit its battery, the ignited battery will release enough energy to sustain flight for up to 300 meters. Therefore, in a scenario where the laser hits the drone's battery, the drone will no longer be able to complete its mission."
