Jam-resistant drone defence: three questions, three clear answers
Three questions come up when a counter-drone system is assessed: what happens when jamming is not enough, what an engagement costs, and where the system sits in an existing architecture.
Where jamming ends, physical defeat begins
Jamming targets the radio link between a drone and its operator. On a drone with no such link, there is nothing to jam.
Fibre-optic drones
Because the control signal runs over cable, jamming has nothing to act on.
Drones on a pre-loaded route
It flies to the target on its own route; there is no link to sever.
The one option left
Destroying it in the air before it arrives, regardless of how it is controlled.
Because drones on fibre-optic cable are unaffected by jamming, shotgun-based systems have re-emerged as the final link of the air defence architecture. Dron Kalkanı is Turkey’s answer to that trend, and it is built on anti-drone ammunition already proven in the field.
A cheap answer to a cheap threat
The real difficulty of the drone threat is economic rather than technical. Answering a few-thousand-dollar target with a million-dollar missile is an equation that exhausts the defender.
Ammunition
12-gauge is one of the most widely used ammunition types in the world. Low unit cost, established supply chain.
Logistics
The user’s supply, storage and distribution infrastructure is usually already in place.
Training
Standard ammunition means standard training. No burden from a new ammunition type.
No radar
A simpler sensor package brings total cost down directly.
No separate cabinet
Processing sits on the turret; no extra hardware or cabling cost.
Low power draw
It does not burden the platform’s power infrastructure.
Fast integration
It can be added to an existing vehicle fleet; no new platform investment.
The final link of layered defence
The upper layers miss small, low-flying, low-cost targets for two reasons: difficulty of detection and cost ratio. Jammers resolve a significant share but are ineffective against fibre-optic and autonomously routed drones. For what remains, the only solution is physical defeat before the target arrives.
What is proven, what is under way
This section says plainly what the system has proven and what is still under way. Institutional buyers look for that transparency.
The ammunition is mature and field-proven
- Sterling anti-drone ammunition was on task under the security measures of the July 2026 NATO Summit in Ankara.
- In firings against single drone targets, the targets were defeated at 150 metres.
- The AI algorithms have proven themselves in exercises and trials.
The robotic platform is in trials
- Work at this stage is focused on perfecting performance against single-drone attacks; work on multiple and swarm drone scenarios will be accelerated shortly.
- Barrel length and effective range updates on the shotguns are in progress.
- Stabilisation and salt-water protection for naval platforms is under development.
What threat are you positioning against?
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