The United States Army has taken a visible step in the race to counter cheap, ubiquitous drones, firing its newest drone-killer gun in a live exercise that paired traditional air-defense weapons with software-driven targeting. The test unfolded as small unmanned aircraft systems, or UAS, flew attack profiles while soldiers used a mix of vehicle-mounted cannons, missiles, and smart optics to knock them down. It was a glimpse of how ground forces expect to fight in skies crowded with quadcopters, loitering munitions, and even coordinated swarms.
Rather than a single silver bullet, the demonstration highlighted a layered approach that stretches from rifle scopes in an infantry squad to mobile air-defense vehicles and future laser weapons. The live fire showed how those layers are starting to knit together around data and automation, turning what used to be a manual hunt for tiny targets into a more systematic, networked defense.
Inside the first live test of the Army’s new drone-killer gun
The centerpiece of the recent exercise was a counter-UAS live fire in which soldiers engaged drones from armored trucks using a new gun system integrated into the Mobile, Low, Slow, Small Unmanned Aircraft Integrated Defeat System, or MLIDS. Video of the event shows the Army’s Mobile, Low, Slow, Small Unmanned Aircraft Integrated Defeat System mounted on tactical vehicles, combining sensors with a rapid-firing cannon to track and destroy low-flying drones that would be hard to spot with the naked eye, a setup detailed in one overview of new anti-drone weapons. The gun at the heart of this configuration is designed to fire programmable 30 mm ammunition from an XM914 cannon, creating airbursts that shred fragile drone airframes without requiring a direct hit.
Footage from a separate segment titled “US Army Testing its Newest Drone-Killer Gun For the First Time” shows the same family of systems in a more focused counter-UAS training scenario. In that clip, the narrator opens with “Welcome Back” and explains that the Daily Aviation channel is following live-fire counter-UAS training that features MLIDS on Joint Light Tactical Vehicles, or JLTVs, alongside Stinger missiles and other interceptors, underscoring how the new gun is meant to complement, not replace, existing missiles. The training sequence, which is highlighted in the drone-killer gun video, shows small drones being engaged at short ranges where a cannon is more economical and responsive than a shoulder-fired missile.
How MLIDS and Stinger missiles share the counter-UAS fight
What stands out in the live-fire sequence is the choreography between the gun system and legacy air-defense weapons. MLIDS uses its sensors to detect and track UAS, then passes targeting data to both the XM914 cannon and nearby Stinger teams, allowing soldiers to decide whether a given drone is best handled by a burst of 30 mm fire or a guided missile. The Daily Aviation narration in the “US Army Testing its Newest Drone-Killer Gun For the First Time” segment, which again greets viewers with “Welcome Back,” emphasizes that MLIDS on JLTVs is training side by side with Stinger crews, a pairing that is spelled out in the linked counter-UAS training clip. In practice, that means the gun can handle small, cheap drones while Stinger missiles are reserved for higher-value or more distant threats.
The broader family of MLIDS configurations is designed to be modular, and earlier footage of the Army’s Mobile, Low, Slow, Small Unmanned Aircraft Integrated Defeat System shows how the XM914 30 mm cannon can be paired with electronic warfare and other effectors on a single platform. In that earlier overview, the narrator walks through how The Army uses MLIDS to engage drones at different ranges, with the XM914 providing a hard-kill option that is cheaper per shot than a missile and more decisive than jamming alone, a concept illustrated in the MLIDS walk-through. The live test of the newest gun is essentially the next step, validating that concept under realistic firing conditions.
Smart rifle scopes push drone defense down to the squad level
While MLIDS and Stinger missiles handle drones at the vehicle and battery level, the Army is also arming individual soldiers with tools to shoot down small UAS on their own. Earlier, the Army fielded cutting-edge smart rifle optics worth a total of 13,000,000 dollars that automatically help shooters track and hit drones in combat, a capability described in detail in coverage of the smart rifle scopes. These SMASH-type systems lock onto a moving drone and cue the trigger at the optimal moment, turning a difficult shot into something closer to a point-and-click engagement.
By pushing counter-UAS capability down to every squad, the Army is acknowledging that drones are no longer a niche air-defense problem but a daily hazard for infantry. The same reporting on the Army’s deployment of these optics notes that the Army invested 13,000,000 dollars in the scopes so that soldiers could automatically shoot down enemy drones in combat, a figure repeated in a second reference to the Army program. In effect, the newest drone-killer gun on MLIDS is part of a continuum that starts with a rifle scope and scales up to vehicle-mounted cannons and missiles.
Marines, swarms, and the joint learning curve
The Army is not alone in trying to solve the drone problem with mobile guns and sensors. The Marines have been running their own live-fire validations of a mobile air-defense system that uses a 30 mm cannon and radar to shoot down drones from tactical vehicles, a process captured in a photo story that shows Marines conducting a one-day live-fire event to confirm deployment readiness. That training cycle, which culminated in a live-fire validation, is documented in a set of Marines photos that mirror the Army’s own test of its newest gun. The Marines’ Marine Air Defense Integrated System, or MADIS, shares a lineage with MLIDS and uses similar 30 mm firepower to kill drones.
At the same time, industry partners are pushing the threat envelope with increasingly sophisticated drone swarms. In a recent live-fire event described as Auterion Achieves Global First in Combat Drone Swarms, a single operator controlled a swarm that struck three targets simultaneously in a U.S. Live Fire Swar scenario, demonstrating how coordinated drones can overwhelm static defenses. That demonstration, in which Auterion Achieves Global First in Combat Drone Swarms and a Single Operator Strikes Three Targets Simultaneously in a Live Fire Swar event, is detailed in a swarm overview. A more detailed press release on the same event, which again uses the phrase Auterion Achieves Global First in Combat Drone Swarms and highlights that a Single Operator Strikes Three Targets Simultaneously in a Live Fire Swar, underscores how quickly offensive drone technology is evolving, as seen in the press release. For the Army, the implication is clear: any new drone-killer gun must be able to engage not just single targets but potentially multiple aircraft in quick succession.
Lasers, layered defenses, and what comes next
The live test of the newest drone-killer gun is only one piece of a broader modernization push that includes directed-energy weapons. The Army is preparing a competition for a counter-drone laser weapon in 2026, with a directed-energy variant intended to give units a virtually bottomless magazine against small UAS in high-threat theaters. Reporting on that effort notes that the Army is readying the 2026 competition for a counter-drone laser weapon, with By Jen Judson explaining that the directed-energy variant is aimed at operations in the Central Command area, as outlined in the initial laser report. A follow-on reference to the same effort, again describing how the Army readies to launch the 2026 competition for a counter-drone laser weapon in Aug, reinforces that the service sees lasers as a complement to guns and missiles, as seen in the second laser reference. In that context, the newest gun is a bridge technology, filling a gap until lasers are mature and widespread.
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