By Katrina Manson
Bloomberg News
WASHINGTON — More than 500 Chinese-made drones confiscated by the state of Florida under a controversial edict were headed for the incinerator. But an eclectic military initiative has saved them from the flames.
Some of them will now be hunted like ducks, with shotguns.
The small quadcopter drones will be handed over to U.S. Special Operations Command, an elite part of the military known as SOCOM with headquarters in Tampa, Florida. They’ll then be used for target practice by shotguns in a three-day competition next month. The events are intended to inject urgency and creativity into America’s efforts to catch up in the global drone wars.
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“It will be the largest counter-drone destruction event ever held in the United States,” said Nate Ecelbarger, a Marine reservist who set up the nonprofit United States National Drone Association, or USNDA, late last year. He created the group with several collaborators after spending sleepless nights fretting about the state of America’s drone capabilities, Ecelbarger told Bloomberg News in an interview. The unusual donation, which came from the state of Florida , hasn’t been previously reported.
The competition seeks to inform a heated debate about how best to defend against enemy drone attacks. Ecelbarger wants to test emerging options, including shotguns, which he described as a last-ditch measure if more conventional efforts failed.
The shotguns will be tested against some of the drones at a Florida event his association is hosting next month, he said. A larger number of the Chinese-made drones will be used at another USNDA training event next year that will include shotguns among the defensive measures tested.
Previously, the largest-ever takedown of drones in the U.S. occurred in September at Camp Atterbury, Indiana, Ecelbarger said. That’s when 49 drones were downed by an electromagnetic weapon, Axios reported.
The Pentagon is seeking to significantly boost drone production and training, including live drone testing, which the Trump administration says has been hindered by restrictive policies and red tape. Ukraine is producing and consuming more than 4,000 drones a day, according to May 2025 congressional testimony from Douglas Beck , then-director of the Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Unit. The U.S. Department of Defense was planning to buy that many this year, he said.
Russian drones have targeted civilian cars and pedestrians as well as military targets, according to a report on civilian attacks in Kherson from a commission established by the United Nations Human Rights Council.
“Russian Federation soldiers behave like this is a safari,” a senior practitioner at a Kherson city hospital is quoted as saying in the report. “They are simply chasing and hunting civilians who are on their way to work or walking their dogs.” Russia, which has denied targeting civilians, didn’t cooperate in the inquiry, according to the report.
The U.S. military has struggled to defend against lethal threats, trying cheap nets, expensive missiles and other possible solutions, and many defense experts argue it isn’t adequately prepared to counter the growing threat.
“If you have nothing else and you hear the buzz, I would want a shotgun,” Ecelbarger said, explaining the rationale for the experiment. If shotguns prove to be an effective defense, he said, then the U.S. military’s emerging drone squads would need to start training regularly with them.
A U.S. special operator briefed on the matter, who asked not to be named to speak freely about the event, said U.S. Special Operations Command would begin collecting the drones from a warehouse on Friday. The software of the seized drones will first be “flashed” — or reprogrammed — to ensure they cannot beacon back to China to reveal their location, the operator added.
A SOCOM spokesperson confirmed Bloomberg’s reporting about the drone donation and upcoming training events, saying it continues to advance unmanned and autonomous systems tactics, techniques and procedures. SOCOM has been provided several hundred drones that will be used for evaluation and training, the spokesperson added.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ 2023 ban on law enforcement and other state authorities using Chinese-made drones and issuance of an approved list of U.S. manufacturers provoked uproar among some in the state, including police agencies. Some argued it was a waste of money for no clearly specified security reasons.
The state, which hosts 21 military installations and three U.S. combatant commands including SOCOM , is seeking to develop itself as a hub for drone manufacturing and testing. State officials are easing regulations for outdoor experimentation and offering state lands for military drone testing, according to the U.S. special operator.
FloridaCommerce, a state agency dedicated to supporting economic opportunity, awarded a $250,000 grant to the USNDA in October in support of hosting military drone competitions and collaborations, and Commerce Secretary J. Alex Kelly is also a USNDA strategic adviser. Kelly has described Florida as “the most military-friendly state in the nation.”
Florida Lt. Gov. Jay Collins, a former Army Green Beret, said in a statement provided by USNDA that converting confiscated drones into training tools would give the U.S. a realistic opportunity to study and counter the systems that adversaries rely on.
U.S. Navy SEALs, Army Rangers and Marines are among the military operators who participated in the association’s first drone competition in September and are now set to try out the shotguns.
At the upcoming events, participants will perform a variety of other military drone tests, such as clearing a room where opposing forces might be present, attacking an enemy convoy and undertaking long-range strikes, according to the USNDA.
U.S. shotgun manufacturer Genesis Arms will provide some of the weapons, along with specially modified ammunition. It will contain denser tungsten buckshot intended to maintain force and speed over distance to deliver a tighter spread of shot that the company says will be more likely to take down a drone from afar.
“We’re killing drones by shooting them out of the sky,” said Kris Mancha , business development manager at the small, closely held Idaho company, which he said already supplies the U.S. military and a clutch of foreign allied governments with 12-gauge shotguns that sell for more than $3,500 each — expensive for a shotgun but far cheaper than some counter-drone solutions.
“Having a shotgun as a last line of defense is very viable,” Mancha said, saying the company has shot down a total of two dozen drones in demonstration events over the past 24 months. A drone is similar to a fast-moving and lethal bird, he said, adding that shooting one down wasn’t much different from hunting and clay shooting.
While each of the military services is developing its own drone solutions, the Florida competitions are among the first efforts to train, compete and share tactics together, Ecelbarger said.
U.S. Army Secretary Dan Driscoll said in a statement provided by USNDA that every element of the US government needs to work together to find effective ways to combat enemy drones. So far at least, the idea of shooting drones out of the sky isn’t universally embraced by the U.S. military establishment.
Before the competition next month, there’ll be a two-day conference, USNDA25, to debate a range of possible offensive and defensive tactics and training scenarios. Ecelbarger said he is hoping the events encourage competition and robust, even heated, discussions.
“I want it to be Jerry Springer,” he said, referring to the late, inflammatory talk show host.
What do you think — is repurposing seized drones for counter-UAS training the right move? Share below.
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