Net launchers are emerging as an effective weapon in done-versus-drone combat in Ukraine, as a series of videos show Russian multicopters being netted. Rotor blades are a vulnerability on quadcopters, and nets are an obvious way of targeting them.
During World War 1, unarmed reconnaissance biplanes fielded by both sides soon started to engage in combat. Pilots started to carry pistols, rifles and hand grenades. Before long the machine-gun, synchronized to fire through propeller blades, was universally adopted for the new class of fighters and ground-attack aircraft. Are net launchers the new machine guns?
Net Benefits
Defensive nets have been used for centuries to prevent boarders getting on to ships, but they have had little offensive use. The Romans only pitted the Retiarius armed with throwing net and trident against a Secutor with a sword in the gladiatorial arena because it made a good spectacle, with the Retiarius a definite underdog.
From the 20th century onwards police forces experimented with net guns resembling oversized shotguns to entangle a target without harming them. These fire four weights, one at each corner of a net, pulling it open mid-flight to enfold the target. As non-lethal weapons, net guns had two problems. One is that if the weights strike the target they can cause serious injury. The other is that the target can disentangle themselves fairly easily, so a net launch needed to be followed by officers rushing in quickly to capture the suspect. Though still in use, police net guns have never become common.
The technology was reinvented to bring down drones without the risks of bullets or explosive projectiles. A wide range of anti-drone net launchers go from the Bazooka-like Skywall Patrol, used to protect U.S. Presidents and others, down to 12-Gauge Skynet shotgun projectiles. They vary in range from more than 100 yards to a few feet.
High-end drone interceptors like the U.S.-supplied Fortem DroneHunter 700 which has been quietly bringing down Russian drones in Ukraine since 2022 are also armed with net launchers. Now the technology is being democratized .
Kiss Of The Spider Drone
The latest version was developed by a Ukrainian team with the aid of the Brave1 national defence technology accelerator specifically for air-to- air combat.
Previously, in drone versus drone dogfights the best approach was to approach from above. The attacker is invisible, as few drones have upward-facing cameras, and descends until they target’s fragile rotor blades hit the body of their drone. This takes out the target, though the attacker sometimes went down with them.
The Russians also used FPV drones in deliberate kamikaze attacks on Baba Yaga night bombers, as a small FPV is a good exchange for a large and dangerous bomber.
Other approaches include a Russian drone armed with a ‘lance’ to break enemy rotors, and bombing drones from above.
Osint analyst DanielR has detailed breakdown of the new weapon on Twitter/X. The propellant looks like a blank 9mm cartridge, firing by a spring-loaded hammer which is triggered by a servo motor. As with other drone weapons, this may be activated by the drone’s LED light. This means the net launcher can be fitted easily without the need for additional control wiring; to fire the net, the operator just turns on the light.
The net is stored in a 3D-printed cone that has a plastic cover, and as with previous design it there is a metal projectile at each corner.
The useful ranges is given up to 10 metes/ 33 feet, and a number of videos show that once netted, drones rapidly drop out of the sky. Total weight of the launching systems is 373 grams / 13 ounces, small enough to be carried by a wide range of quadcopters.
As DanielR notes, any quadcopter netted is likely to be over Ukrainian lines and may be recovered for any intelligence it yields and possible reuse.
While the normal configuration is downward-firing, there are images of drones with forward-firing net launches which suggests they might be used in an interceptor role against faster drones. The net is 3 metres / 10 feet square, making it capable of wrapping larger drones.
The makers also produce a small handheld version as a last-ditch defence against drones.
The design may still be in the process of refinement – “There is a quite a bit of recoil,” DanielR told me, which may affect accuracy – but the net launcher already looks like a useful weapon.
As usual in this conflict, both sides are developing similar weapons as the same time. The Russians have already started using drones with explosively-fired nets to bring down Baba Yaga bombers.
Drone Combat
A net provides more efficient coverage than a blast of shotgun pellets or shrapnel: anything inside the 10-foot-square reach of the net is likely to be brought down, if it has rotors that can be snagged.
If net do become a major threat though, drone designers may respond with countermeasures. In the DroneClash drone combat sports arena, some developers fielded drones with shrouded or enclosed rotors to protect them against this type of hazard. These come with weight and performance penalties, but, like body armor, might become necessary for survival.
In a field where new systems are deployed rapidly from garage workshops, sometimes by soldiers themselves in the field, evolution is accelerated. This month net launchers are in the ascendant; next month they may be the decisive factor in drone warfare, or they may already have been superseded. What we can say is that drones appear to be here to stay , and drones versus drone combat is likely to be come increasingly important.
