US military tests new AI-powered machine gun designed to take down drones

A contractor of the Department of Defence has showcased the impressive defensive capabilities of a new machine gun that's designed to combat the rise of drones throughout warfare.

The new machine gun was developed by Allen Control System (ACS) and is officially called the "Bullfrog." The new weapon was tested out at the Technology Readiness Experimentation event earlier this year, which is an event that enables contractors to display their technology to the Pentagon for potential acquisition. The new machine gun uses an AI-powered system to target small drones in the air and shoot them down, with the entire system being designed to combat the meteoric rise in uncrewed aircraft throughout warfare.

ACS cofounder Steve Simoni spoke to Wired and said the Russian and Ukraine war demonstrated the increase in the use of drones, and after seeing the footage of the war and Ukrainians firing AK-47s at drones, they decided to investigate a potential robotics program capable of automatically targeting drones. ACS claims its Bullfrog is cheaper to use compared to other drone-centered solutions such as microwave or laser weapons systems.

"During the Russian invasion of Ukraine, we saw the proliferation of drones on both sides of the conflict, and we read in various news outlets the Ukrainians were firing AK-47s in the air at them," ACS cofounder and CEO Steve Simoni told Wired. "We thought, 'That's a good robotics problem.' It's hard to hit something flying so fast, but a robot can do that with modern-day computer vision and AI control algorithms."

"We are electrical engineers, and we decided that in order to solve this problem of hitting a fast drone that's accelerating at five Gs at a couple hundred yards, you would need an incredibly high-end current that goes through a motor and encoders that know the position of your gun at all times," he told Wired. "To put that form factor in the hands of someone with an M4 seemed like a very tough problem."