Fort Leavenworth SAMS students get hands-on counter-drone shotgun demo

FORT LEAVENWORTH, Kansas - The day before their graduation, School of Advanced Military Studies students were offered the opportunity to shoot skeet using shotguns to simulate battling enemy drones, led by an analyst who has been bringing back lessons learned from the frontlines of the war in Ukraine.

The SAMS students joined analyst and Air Force veteran Paul Schwennesen, director of Global Strategy Decisions Group, May 20, 2026, at Brunner Range at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, to familiarize themselves with this rudimentary but effective method for eliminating a drone threat using regular 12-gauge shotguns, like those a hunter would use, as well as a drone-modified shotgun with a longer barrel to improve distance accuracy and capacity to hold more ammunition. Schwennesen said shotguns are used as a counter-drone weapon, rather than a single-shot pistol, for their firepower.

"It's a cloud of lead," he said of the shotgun's blast of pellets. "Whereas, if you're trying to shoot that same target … with one single bullet, it is next to impossible," he said. "A moving target in the air is a very, very difficult thing to hit, and so shotguns give you that cloud of knockdown power."

Schwennesen said Global Strategy Decisions Group has been covering the war in Ukraine since the full-scale invasion in 2022. He said he has been sharing lessons learned about the ongoing conflict to try to help improve the United States' "security posture in the face of the new drone threat."

"Over the past few months, our team has done a deep dive into the shotgun counter-drone option, particularly in light of the rise of fiber-optic, (electronic warfare) jamming-proof drone technology. As dated as it may sound, shotguns represent pretty much all we have as a 'last line' inner layer of a layered (counter-unmanned aircraft systems) strategy."

Schwennesen said his group has provided the shotgun-vs.-drone demonstrations and familiarization training in Ukraine; at West Point, New York, and Fort Huachuca, Arizona; to special operations groups and national defense representatives and would be, shortly after the demo with SAMS students, to troops in Norway as well.

"Fundamentally we are trying to remind our soldiers, sailors and airmen that they are not defenseless in this new threat environment," he said. "A moderate amount of training with modern shotguns and widely available loads can make a substantial difference in the face of new attack vectors."

Schwennesen said shooting skeet is great practice for soldiers, and it is an inexpensive way to build eye-hand coordination and the reflex to shoot drones. He said such practice is hugely valuable and makes shooting drones easier, and since most installations already have the infrastructure to provide that practice, service members could easily and feasibly be honing drone-destroying skills using targets.

SAMS student Maj. Julian Hutchins said the work Schwennesen is doing and his efforts to get information and familiarization to the force is really important.

"I think, in general, what we've learned over the last year is that warfare is all about innovation and adaptation, and adapting during a conflict is extremely, extremely important. That's why you see these high cycles of innovations and adaptations that are happening in Ukraine in their conflict right now," Hutchins said. "So, getting the force to break out of the old GWOT, Global War on Terror mindset, and start thinking about what warfare could be like in a potential future scenario is invaluable."

Hutchins said when the changing character of war is considered, introducing new technologies to the force and factoring in that cost can be prohibitive, but neither new technology acquisition nor expense would be issues with this type of defense since the military already has shotguns in the inventory.

"We have people trained on these pieces of equipment, and it takes nothing to enter this type of adaptation into the force, except for a dedicated strategy when it comes to range usage and how we're doing our collective training," Hutchins said.

SAMS student Maj. Michael Spalla agreed that using shotguns for this use is effective when considering tactics, techniques and procedures for dealing with threats.

"Oftentimes, we're looking to do new things in new ways. Occasionally, you can do something old in a new way, and this is an example of that," Spalla said. "We've learned a lot about electronic warfare at SAMS, which we certainly do and will need in the future. Also, something as simple as a shotgun that the basic soldier at the basic level could wield that is inexpensive, that's also a good TTP as well."

Schwennesen said he has been trying to share information he has been gleaning from the modern battlefield in Ukraine and how the U.S. military can learn from it.

"We're not really offering any hard and fast answers. We're all trying to learn this on the go because the world is changing so fast," he said.

Schwennesen said he made his first trip of now nine trips to Ukraine as a volunteer after feeling a call to help people who needed help. He said he soon realized how much Ukrainians were learning and adapting, and the situation went from them learning from others to them being the ones to impart lessons learned.

"We're trying to learn as we go here," he said. "What we know is that there's really no viable counter-drone technology widely fielded right now. There's nothing."

Schwennesen said every squad in Ukraine is using shotguns, which are often the only weapon available against drones, particularly when electronic warfare jamming is of no use. He said he would like to see the U.S. military adopt the practice.

"What I would love to see is the DoD start to pick this up and realize that, especially in the Army, especially on that side of the house, or even particularly for the Air Force - if the Air Force security forces took this seriously and armed all of their, the equivalent of the MPs, with shotguns and knew how to use them, that could make a big difference for protecting our air assets, which are an extremely vulnerable target," he said. "Our F-35s, all these billion-dollar airframes are just sitting on the tarmac, wide open to attack - like what Ukraine did to Russia. We've seen this, we've been warned so many times, and we're just going to take it on the chin because we're not doing anything about it."

After shooting several rounds of skeet from different positions, both singularly and with multiple shooters at the same time, the SAMS students discussed with Schwennesen some of the shotgun method's possibilities, how it could be implemented, ideas for other types of drone defense and more.

SAMS student Maj. Daniel Lafranchi said he appreciated Schwennesen sharing take-aways from his experience in Ukraine.

"It's very rare to get somebody that has the experience firsthand, talking to the people that are actually experiencing this type of problem set," Lafranchi said. "A lot of times we hear about Ukraine, we hear about second or third hand, but hearing from somebody that actually has been there and talked to people on the ground, getting that firsthand experience, being able to provide us with that information is invaluable."