Eight Italian-made Benelli M4 shotguns sit on a single remote-controlled turret in Beretta and DUALEE’s new LIVET Remote Controlled Weapon Station (RCWS), a configuration designed specifically to engage small, close-range drones.
LIVET RCWS: eight Benelli M4s on a remotely operated turret
Developed through a collaboration between Beretta Defense Technologies and Italian technology company DUALEE, the LIVET RCWS pairs a bank of eight Benelli M4 Drone Guardian shotguns with remote weapon operation and AI-driven target tracking. The system completed a live demonstration in Denmark in front of the Danish Armed Forces, showing how multiple shotgun barrels can be combined on a single turret to increase available firepower and redundancy against small uncrewed aerial systems (UAS).
Benelli M4 Drone Guardian and programmable airburst ammunition
Each of LIVET’s eight weapons is based on Benelli’s M4 Drone Guardian, a semi-automatic 12-gauge shotgun introduced in 2024 and purpose-built for counter-drone work. The M4 Drone Guardian fires programmable airburst ammunition intended to disperse a projectile payload at a selected distance, increasing the effective engagement volume against small aerial targets. The French Army — a user of the baseline M4 Drone Guardian — identified roughly 160 feet as an optimal effective engagement range for shotgun-based anti-drone applications and stated a maximum range of up to 330 feet, underscoring the system’s role as a short-range, terminal-layer defender rather than a medium- or high-altitude interceptor.
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End the scrambleAI tracking, sensor integration, and human-in-the-loop control
LIVET’s turret pairs its multi-barrel armament with an AI-based detection, recognition and automatic-tracking suite that can follow and align weapons on incoming aerial threats while an operator monitors the engagement. The system can track up to five targets simultaneously. It also supports integration with external radio‑frequency and radar sensors, allowing the turret to receive target information detected elsewhere. Despite automated target-following capabilities, the system retains a human operator in the loop: the final engagement decision remains with the operator at the control console.
Where LIVET fits: short-range, terminal counter-UAS and comparisons
Shotgun-based counter-drone approaches trade range for a larger projectile spread and, with airburst rounds, a filled volume of sky at terminal distances. LIVET amplifies that tradeoff by clustering eight such weapons on a single mount, increasing ammunition capacity and the probability of a successful kill at close range. The source describes LIVET as intended primarily for micro- and mini-UAVs — small quadcopters and FPV drones that penetrate closer layers of defense — rather than larger UAVs or higher-altitude threats.
The concept is not unique: field improvisations in Ukraine have seen vehicle-mounted arrays of multiple barrels used for close-range anti-drone work, and purpose-designed systems exist elsewhere. Turkey’s Drone Kalkanı mounts two 12-gauge shotguns on a robotic turret, and Estonia-based Edge Group integrated a quad shotgun on a remote weapon station mounted on a Ukrainian uncrewed ground vehicle (UGV). Vehicle mounting is a possible option for LIVET as well, according to the reporting.
What this means for technologists, procurement officials, and operational commanders
- Technologists and security teams: The system highlights integration priorities — sensor fusion (RF and radar), reliable AI tracking for small signatures, and a secure human‑machine interface that preserves operator control while automating alignment and follow-up fire.
- Procurement officials and acquisition planners: LIVET represents a short-range, kinetic option that could be fielded as a terminal-layer complement to electronic warfare, interceptor drones, longer-range guns, or missile-based systems; its utility will hinge on testing, cost-per-engagement calculations, and whether its constrained engagement envelope matches mission requirements.
- Operational commanders and front-line units: As deployed shotgun-based systems have an optimal effective range measured in tens to a few hundred feet, units will need to position LIVET-enabled defenses where drones are likely to penetrate other layers — as a last line of protection for personnel, vehicles, or installations when electronic countermeasures are ineffective.
The LIVET RCWS embodies a clear design choice: accept short engagement distances in exchange for a dispersed, inexpensive terminal effect against the smallest, most numerous UAS threats. Whether mounting eight Benelli M4s on a single turret translates into a practical, cost-effective capability will depend on further testing, real-world deployments and how well operators and sensor networks exploit the system’s automated tracking while retaining final human control.
Original reporting: https://www.twz.com/land/berettas-new-counter-drone-system-packs-eight-benelli-m4-shotguns-onto-a-remote-turret
