In what is easily one of the raddest developments in counter-drone technology yet, Beretta has introduced the LIVET Remote Controlled Weapon Station, a turret equipped with eight semi-auto Benelli M4 Drone Guardian shotguns.
The turret itself was built by Beretta Defense Technologies in cooperation with Italian firm DUALEE, while the Drone Guardian shotguns are built by Beretta Armi, another company under the wider Beretta group.
LIVET can be set to an automated mode to auto-track drone threats through the use of AI; it is also controllable remotely so that the user can stay safely away.
The shotguns – which set the LIVET apart from every other counter-drone turret – are held in two “arms” centered around the turret’s main body.
The Russian military developed a similar-looking system during the war in Ukraine. Russia’s system used a magazine-fed VEPR shotgun and was also remote controlled.
However, the Russians found their system to be too slow to work. It was nowhere near as sophisticated as Beretta’s LIVET and it lacked an auto-tracking system.
Auto-tracking makes targeting fast small drones much more effective than having a human manually track and target these elusive threats in the heat of the moment.
LIVET seems to effectively blend a cost-effective kinetic option with the ability to accurately engage drones thanks to advanced targeting systems.
At the heart of the LIVET sit the eight M4 Drone Guardian shotguns.
The M4 has an auto-regulating, gas-operated system that integrates two gas pistons to ensure reliable semi-automatic fire. As far as I can tell, the M4 system is the most reliable semi-auto shotgun system on the market.
The Drone Guardian variant makes a few notable changes to the classic M4 design.
In the Drone Guardian, the barrel’s forcing cone is larger and longer which helps prevent pellets from deforming. In turn, round pellets tend to fly truer and farther in tighter patterns.
Further, the forcing cone sits inside the barrel and funnels the shot down into the bore, which is tighter than the shotgun’s chamber. In contrast, most other shotguns have a short, abrupt forcing cone that creates a violent bottleneck for shot to pass through.
These adjustments allow the Drone Guardian to have an effective range of 50 meters – it can even reach 100 meters, although Benelli says that distance is borderline.
Each of the LIVET’s eight shotguns holds six rounds, if using three-inch magnum loads, or seven if using 2.75-inch shells.
The three-inch load would pack more shot overall than the 2.75-inch one and make it easier to put more pellets in the air with every trigger pull. The three-inch load’s downside is, though, that a miss hurts a little more due to the gun’s limited capacity.
The rounds are programmable air-burst to maximize their effectiveness against small incoming drones. They are held in a tubular, fixed magazine beneath the barrel.
We don’t know if LIVET fires all its guns at once, but, since it’s using auto-tracking systems, this seems unlikely. Instead, it would be more effective if it fires one gun at a time until that gun is empty or malfunctions – and eight shotguns give you plenty of ammo and options in the event of a malfunction.
The LIVET appears to be a fairly large system so it won’t be man-portable. It will be used for static defense and may be mounted on vehicles. Many questions remain about the system’s capabilities, but it’s certainly an interesting mix of low- with high-tech.
We’ll keep an eye on its development and implementation.
Feature Image: Beretta’s LIVET system. (Beretta)
Read more from Sandboxx News
- Performance enhancers in Delta Force were not what you’d think
- The ultimate guide to the Patriot air defense system
- Air Force wants to equip its F-16s with hypersonic Blackbeard missiles
- Lockheed Martin and Pentagon announce deal to protect F-35 procurement for the next decade
- The secret inspiration behind Jimmy Stewart’s upcoming biopic was a still-flying B-24 Liberator
