Source: Reuters
The case can be made, and successfully, that the wide-scale usage of drones in the Russo-Ukrainian War has changed the modern battlefield. The Ukrainians have totally embraced drones as they have a low production cost, can be produced in relatively large numbers, and in many cases, the monetary cost of what they destroy far outweighs the money and materials that went into the drone. Ukraine makes use of drones in the air, on sea, and on land. In fact, Ukrainian naval drones have pretty much turned Russia's Black Sea Fleet into a useless entity as what ships remain have to operate at ranges that exceed their ability to provide any meaningful support to ground units. Of course, Russia is also making heavy use of aerial drones, to include the deadly ZALA Lancet loitering munition. As such, like Russian troops, Ukrainian troops have to be constantly aware of any drone activity and this photograph illustrates that.
Often, Ukrainian front-line troops are supplied not by large military logistical trucks but much smaller vehicles such as civilian pick-up trucks. The crews of these supply vehicles are always on the watch for enemy drones and rely on reports from other units in the area of drone activity. Also, they take steps to protect themselves and on the roof of the cab of the pick-up are at least two drone jammer domes. This allows the crew to jam more than one frequency though it is a near constant issue of frequencies being changed to mitigate jamming and the jammers having their frequency spectrum changed to allow them to jam the latest drone frequencies being used. Jammers are not fool-proof and so while two of the crew work to unload supplies, the third crewman keeps his eyes skyward. A weapon of choice to combat drones is the shotgun and here, the soldier looks to have a Tula TOZ-34 over-under shotgun.
The TOZ-34 first appeared in 1964 and is one of the most prolific and popular civilian hunting weapons made by the Russian Tula Arms Plant (TOZ; founded in 1712) with over 1 million having been built. The 7 pound shotgun is typically chambered for 12 gauge shells but it was also produced in 20, 28, and 32 gauge at one time or another. The TOZ-34 uses a break action and the rate of fire depends on how skilled and quick the firer is with reloading. The TOZ-34 only has iron sights but later variants had provisioning for optical sights.
As the typical 12 gauge shotgun has an effective range of around 150 feet, it means a very close fight with a drone. The operator relies on the spread of the buckshot to inflict damage on the drone though at maximum range, the spread pattern is such that a hit is a 50 percent prospect. As such, to increase the odds of downing a drone, the operator would engage at 75 feet or less. At such close quarters, there may be no second chances if the drone is not destroyed with one or two shots from the TOZ-34. This is because there may be no time to reload.
