Another military aid package from the United States announced April 4 has promised a variety of new weapons and a whole spectrum of ammunition types. Among the items, we can see an unusual new weapon labeled as the 30-mm gun truck.
What it is, as well as the terms of delivery were discussed during the post-announcement briefing at the Pentagon. It is a system armed with a 30mm autocannon specializing in taking down enemy drones which is mounted on a truck.
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Based on this description, we talk basically a combat module with a target detection and aiming system installed on a wheeled chassis. An example for such a combat module would be the Mk38 MOD 2 mounted on naval ships.
We don't have any more new details regarding these gun trucks but the fact it is specifically the 30 mm caliber is very important because the Mk38 MOD 2 is equipped with a 25mm M243 Bushmaster autocannon. On the other hand, the 30 mm caliber is fairly unusual for the U.S. Army though it is used for some armored combat vehicles, for example in the combat module of the M1296 Striker Dragoon. But generally, it is not as widespread in the U.S. military as the 25 mm.
That said, the most probable candidate for a 30mm automatic gun for an anti-drone system would be the Mk44 Bushmaster II since it can fire proximity fuse ammunition.
Proximity ammunition is one of the most effective choices against drones as it can guarantee a hit on the UAV with just a few rounds fired. The same idea is used in the German Skynex air defense gun, a.k.a. MANTIS.
As for the time needed for the promised anti-drone guns to reach Ukraine, we should note that the provision is funded under the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI) program when the weapons are procured from manufacturers instead of coming directly from the US Department of Defense stocks. However, US DoD officials assured that the delivery would take just a few months.
The United States has so far committed only 9 such systems. Most likely, additional supplies would depend on how well these guns will perform in Ukraine, in real combat. And the alternative is the APKWS missile system that is being produced for Ukraine under the same USAI program. The new US military aid package also adds another 10 APKWS to the order.
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