[andrewstuart]

Of all shapes and sizes. I can imagine a robot M16 attached to a drone spotter might be effective against the sort of small drones that are hitting tanks in Ukraine.

[instagib]

Semi automatic shotgun spread pattern is pretty good for short range.

[maxerickson]

Why not a 20 mm cannon?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phalanx_CIWS

[ttepasse]

Because the land version of Phalanx, the Centurion, is big, needs a large transport and a lot of energy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centurion_C-RAM

Although an auto cannon seems to be the right thing. The current thing seems to be the mobile, smaller Skyranger systems:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skyranger_30

That’s still rather big and is a dedicated vehicle. I wonder if there are initiatives of coupling the remote-controlled weapon turrents on normal vehicles with radar and such enabling anti-air capability:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remote_controlled_weapon_stati...

[maxerickson]

That's a 30 mm cannon.

[ceejayoz]

C-RAM is 20, but a bulkier, less mobile system. Raw barrel size isn’t the only consideration.

[maxerickson]

My initial comment was mostly a remark on approaching it as a new problem and suggesting small arms, not a statement that I thought the existing system was optimized for all situations.

[TiredOfLife]

Look at the effective range of those things.

[cm2187]

Plus people will get a lot less worked up about AI picking and aiming at targets in the air vs on the ground.

[ceejayoz]

Until one pulls a USS Vincennes.