Sydney (AFP) – With its futuristic shape, it seems like something out of a science fiction film. Far from the original project of eliminating mosquitoes from bedrooms, the rifle causes drones to drop like flies on the battlefield.
Published on: 02/20/2026 - 22:51
From Ukraine to the Red Sea, including the fight against cartels in Latin America, unmanned aircraft have become inseparable from modern conflicts, between information collection, jamming and so-called "suicide" assaults.
Thousands of kilometers away, in the Australian city of Sydney, the defense company DroneShield is riding the wave. Based on the idea of an anti-mosquito laser that did not pierce, it now has much bigger targets in its sights.
“Any future war will have these things that we expect like tanks, artillery and missiles, but also drones, and with that you need anti-drone systems,” summarizes its CEO, Oleg Vornik, to AFP.
An hour's drive from his company's headquarters, technicians demonstrate the product.
“Okay, I’m lost.”
A drone flies above the trees. The shooter takes out his “DroneGun”, black varnished, disproportionate.
He takes aim, pulls the trigger, and there is the device on the ground, disoriented by a flow of radio waves.
Everything looks simple here. But in Ukraine, the reality would be very different, tempers Oleg Vornik. On the battlefield, seeing a drone often means it's already too late, and "you're probably going to die."
DroneShield technology allows its user to scan the area for possible enemy vehicles.
If a device is spotted, two choices are available to it.
“You wait for the drone to go away and find something else to focus on,” Mr. Vornik says.
“Or you pull out a drone gun.”
Once hit, "the drone says: 'Okay, I'm lost. I don't know where I am so I'm just going to crash or land,'" he explains.
Fashion effect?
The company, which has seen its stock swell by more than 300% over the last year, is now the country's most valuable in the defense sector, with 2.78 billion Australian dollars (1.66 billion euros).
This surge nevertheless raises questions. Is this the beginning of long-term success, or a “meme action”, artificially boosted by its virality on social networks and doomed to relapse? It must be said that the design of the DroneGun is sure to create buzz...
In 2025, while DroneShield's stock was breaking its record, Oleg Vornik sold shares for $50 million, fueling concerns.
The CEO assures AFP that he simply needed it to pay taxes and wanted to be financially secure.
Still, he acknowledges that DroneShield stock follows a "high risk, high reward" model.
Explaining that war zones in Ukraine only account for 5% of his company's turnover, he sees more and more civilian utility in anti-drone systems.
For example for the security of airports, many in Europe having been disrupted by drones last year. Or the surveillance of prisons in the United Kingdom, theaters of contraband between inmates and outsiders by small flying devices.
“It’s the nature of war.”
Drones have "become an integral part of the way we wage war", confirms to AFP Steven Feldstein, of the Carnegie Foundation for International Peace, an organization based in Washington.
“They do things that are much more expensive and difficult to reproduce with traditional ammunition,” he emphasizes.
The real challenge for companies like DroneShield is to adapt to this “moment of disruption” in the ways of fighting, believes the expert.
“But this is also true for all types of weapons, whether tanks, anti-tank systems or supersonic aircraft and stealth fighters,” says Steven Feldstein.
“This is the nature of war,” concludes the expert.
© 2026 AFP
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