Rheinmetall tests Revolver Gun Mk 3 against UAV swarms

Rheinmetall has recently been testing its 35 mm Revolver Gun Mk 3's capability to engage unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) swarms. The tests were conducted on the Ochsenboden firing range in Switzerland on 14–18 June.

Octocopters begin to drop like flies after being hit by air bursts from AHEAD munition fired by a Revolver Gun Mk 3 at Rheinmetall's Ochsenboden firing range in Switzerland on 23 June. (Rheinmetall Air Defence)

Gerson Jaklin, marketing and sales manager at Rheinmetall Air Defence, said the gun was mounted on a Rheinmetall MAN Military Vehicles (RMMV) HX2 6×6 truck with an adaptor plate for easy access to the weapon. Rheinmetall Air Defence CEO Fabian Ochsner described it as “a solid truck” but added that “lots of engineering” was required to stabilise it to the same extent as the concrete platforms used by the Skyguard air defence system.

With 252 ready-to-fire rounds and a rate of fire of 1,000 rds/min, the Revolver Gun Mk 3 can engage four targets at once. Using a Ku-band tracking radar installed on the turret to align it for greater accuracy, it fired 18 rounds of advanced hit efficiency and destruction (AHEAD) air burst munition at a swarm of eight octocopter UAVs at a range of 800–900 m. The version of AHEAD used was the PMD 428 round with more than 600 rather than the usual 152 subprojectiles.