These Counter-Drone Scopes Worked So Well in Ukraine, US and UK Want Them

Wes O'Donnell
5 min readNov 8, 2024

Back in my day, it used to take discipline and skill to shoot well. Totally not bragging, but I could shoot the lips off a cockroach at 300 meters.

And while it did take some natural talent — we had people get kicked out of basic training because they simply could not shoot well — a soldier’s natural talents are further refined by skills gained from constant shooting practice.

We shot so much that I still have hearing loss in my right ear — it turns out, putting cigarette butts in your ears for protection because you forgot your “foamies”, doesn’t quite grant the same level of protection.

Pictured: The author absolutely demolishing his hearing… Note — this is not a Smartshooter scope in this image, just old-fashioned night vision.

On the M4 range, the furthest targets were positioned at 300 meters. At that distance, the life-sized green plastic man-shaped targets were roughly the size of a pencil eraser held at arm’s length.

Put that 300-meter target in motion, and things get even more difficult.

We weren’t aware of it, but our brains would perform complex calculations: the percent of bullet drop due to gravity, wind direction, the relative speed of the target, direction of the target in two-dimensional space, the ambient temperature and humidity, our own breathing, and the barrel length of our rifles among other factors.

--

--

Wes O'Donnell
Wes O'Donnell

Written by Wes O'Donnell

US Army & US Air Force Veteran | Global Security Writer | Intel Forecaster | Law Student | TEDx Speaker | Pro Democracy | Pro Human | Hates Authoritarians

Responses (10)