Anti-drone chain gun with 50mm precision-guided ammunition unveiled — Northrop Grumman's Raid Hunter is designed to wipe out drone swarms and cruise missiles

U.S. aerospace, defense and security giant Northrop Grumman thinks it has a solution that will provide short-range, layered air defense against the increasingly complex aerial threats we see in modern war. The new Raid Hunter uses the firm’s Chain Gun technology to defend targets from cruise missiles, drone swarms and other evolving threats. It thus addresses an area identified as a “critical short-range air defense gap.” Furthermore, the modular Raid Hunter can be rapidly deployed on the C-130 and other vehicles, with networking enabling sensor fusion and coordinated engagements.

We have seen in Ukraine, and more recently in the Middle East, that modern air defense systems are struggling with high-volume drone swarms and low-flying cruise missiles. The sheer amount of aerial threats is overwhelming defense systems that have traditionally been designed to knock out warplanes and cruise missiles. Moreover, expensive anti-air missiles such as the Patriot system seem inappropriate and imbalanced for stopping far cheaper and more numerous drones.

“War has evolved. Air Defenders need the ability to defend against large, complex raids designed to overwhelm traditional defense solutions,” said Kenn Todorov, VP and GM, command and control & weapons integration, at Northrop Grumman. This is the perceived gap Northrop Grumman hopes the Raid Hunter will fill.

Now that we have spelled out clearly what it is for, let’s look more closely at the Raid Hunter. Central to its proposed task is what Northrop Grumman calls its “proven Chain Gun technology, [and] precision‑guided 50mm ammunition.” This large-caliber and high-rate-of-fire gun is cost-effective, can be equipped with deep magazines, with fast reloads. It addresses “the economic challenge of massed swarming threats,” asserts the defense firm.

Raid Hunter is also easy to get into position, or move out of harm’s way, as a palletized modular design that can be vehicle-mounted or containerized.

This new counter-UAS solution’s abilities scale well, too. Northrop Grumman indicates that multiple Raid Hunter deployments can work as an integrated system in a networked, interoperable way. It also integrates with layered defense architectures – including other air and missile defense systems - to protect critical assets across a range of operations.

Tests of the Raid Hunter are going to continue this year to validate its counter-UAS and air defense capabilities. It is hoped that the tests will support accelerated fielding of these air defense systems.

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