DroneGun Tactical's place in that lineup is defined by trade-offs against its siblings. The original rifle-shaped DroneGun and its DroneGun MkII revision, both discontinued, needed a separate backpack battery pack to reach their range. DroneGun Tactical, covered in this article, folded that same long-range capability into one self-contained housing with no backpack, at the cost of remaining the heaviest model in the family — around 6.8 kg at its January 2018 launch, listed at 7.3 kg including two batteries on DroneShield's current spec sheet.^1,2,4 DroneShield later built DroneGun MkIII (2019), a pistol-shaped, sub-2.5 kg unit that gives up more than half of Tactical's range in exchange for genuinely one-handed carry, and DroneGun Mk4 (2023), pitched as a middle ground between the two.¹ This article covers DroneGun Tactical specifically — the model built for reach and disruption power rather than pocketability.

DroneGun Tactical weighs 7.3 kg (16.1 lbs) including two batteries on DroneShield's current specification sheet, a figure reseller SecurityProUSA repeats; the unit's introductory 2018 press materials instead cited 6.8 kg, and a September 2020 relaunch article described it at the same weight while calling out "stronger power, lighter weight and top-of-the-line ergonomics" relative to what preceded it — the small spread likely reflects battery-configuration or production-year differences rather than a hidden redesign.^1,2,4,11 The rifle ships in a rugged IP67 carry case measuring 1200 x 560 x 220 mm, for a total shipped weight of 20 kg, and is available in matte black or desert sand.^1,2 It is rated IP54 for dust and water ingress and specified to run across a -20°C to +55°C range, with MIL-STD-1913 (Picatinny) rails along the housing for mounting a sight or other accessory.^1,2,8

The jammer's job, as with every model in DroneShield's dismounted range, is denying two links a small drone needs to keep flying under control: the operator's command/video uplink, and — where the operator engages an optional module — satellite navigation. DroneShield's spec sheet describes coverage across "a wide range of ISM bands, as well as GNSS," and earlier product materials for the system spelled that out as 433 MHz and 915 MHz control frequencies plus the 2.4 GHz and 5.8 GHz ISM bands used for control and video on most consumer and prosumer drones, with an optional GNSS L1/L2 module adding disruption of GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou and Galileo signals.^1,2,4 DroneShield states a successfully jammed drone will typically perform a vertical controlled landing on the spot or automatically return toward its take-off point or controller, immediately cutting the live video feed reaching the drone's operator.^1,2

Reported effective range has grown across the product's life, which is worth reading as a maturing spec sheet rather than three different products. At its January 2018 launch, DroneShield described the range as "exceeding 1 kilometer."⁴ A February 2018 NATO Stock Number announcement — covering the related DroneGun MkII rather than Tactical itself, but describing the same design generation of backpack-free, rifle-style jammer — cited a 2 km figure.⁷ Reseller and current-catalogue listings by the mid-2020s describe a 1-2 km range, and DroneShield's own current spec sheet, reproduced by reseller MSS Defence, lists a 2.5 km functional range.^1,2 Power comes from a rechargeable 14.4VDC lithium-ion battery pack, NATO-military-approved in some configurations, rated for more than 2 hours of aggregate operational (active jamming) time per charge, with a quick-release mechanism for swapping packs in the field.^1,2

DroneShield was founded on 10 January 2014 in Virginia, United States, by Brian Hearing and John Franklin, initially pursuing acoustic drone-detection technology before the company relocated its operational center to Sydney, listed on the Australian Securities Exchange in 2016, and came under CEO Oleg Vornik in 2015.^12,13 The company's handheld jammer line began with the original rifle-shaped DroneGun, followed by a DroneGun MkII revision in late 2017 — both of which needed a separate backpack-mounted battery to reach their stated range.^4,7

DroneGun Tactical arrived in January 2018 as the answer to that backpack problem. DroneShield describes the program as growing out of a briefing from a major European military in late 2017 and comprehensive international end-user trials that followed, with the company folding the earlier backpack-based design into a single self-contained rifle housing while holding onto well over a kilometer of effective range.^4,5 DroneShield was explicit that Tactical was not meant to replace DroneGun MkII outright, describing it instead as serving "users with a different set of requirements" — namely, buyers who valued maximum range and disruption power in one carried unit over a lighter, more casual-carry package.⁴ The following month, DroneShield's related DroneGun MkII line received a NATO Stock Number following a US Department of Defense request, a step CEO Oleg Vornik called "a vote of confidence" that would let NATO and allied militaries acquire the system through standard logistics channels without mandatory independent testing; DroneGun Tactical's own current spec sheet lists its own NATO Stock Number today.^1,7

In June 2018, DroneShield announced what it described at the time as its largest shipment to date and the largest known shipment of counter-drone technology in the industry's short history: a $3.2 million order for 70 DroneGun Tactical units, placed by an undisclosed Middle Eastern Ministry of Defense that the company described as a Western-allied government with one of the largest defense budgets in the world.⁶ Because DroneGun Tactical's jamming function required US export approval even for an allied buyer, DroneShield needed regulatory clearance before the units could ship; CEO Oleg Vornik called the delivery approval "an important step in DroneShield's history, with a green light to deliver on our first multi-million dollar order."⁶ DroneShield's own retrospective on the product credits it with further sales, including protective deployment at major international events such as the Commonwealth Games and a Winter Olympics, and DroneGun Tactical units were confirmed disabling seven commercial drones during security operations at the Southeast Asian Games in December 2019.^5,9

DroneGun Tactical gained its highest-profile public sighting in June 2021, when Belgian Federal Police officers were photographed carrying it — alongside a net-capture system from a different manufacturer — as part of the security detail for US President Joe Biden's meeting with Belgian King Philippe in Brussels, reporting that identified the rifle-shaped jammer by its Picatinny rails and DroneShield markings.⁸ DroneShield added a fourth model, DroneGun Mk4, in 2023, positioned as a middle ground between Tactical's range and MkIII's compactness; by DroneShield's current product catalogue, Tactical and Mk4 are the two dismounted jammers actively marketed, with the earlier MkIII absent from that same listing despite continuing to sell as of the sales discussed below.¹ In December 2025, Belgium's armed forces signed a roughly €2.8 million contract with DroneShield covering both DroneGun Tactical and DroneGun MkIII units, part of a broader Belgian response to a sharp rise in drone incursions over national airspace and military sites.¹⁰

No independently documented combat or active-war-zone use of DroneGun Tactical specifically has been confirmed as of this writing. Australia included unspecified DroneShield "Drone Gun" systems, model not disclosed, in a roughly A$20 million military assistance package for Ukraine announced in October 2023, and DroneShield has separately said it has supplied Ukrainian forces with handheld and fixed counter-UAS systems since the war's opening phase through a locally established partnership announced in August 2025 — but public reporting found for this article ties that Ukrainian supply chain specifically to the company's RfPatrol detection system rather than naming DroneGun Tactical.^14,15 This section will be updated if a documented combat deployment of this specific model is confirmed.

Belgium's Federal Police are a documented user of DroneGun Tactical as of June 2021, when officers carried the rifle as part of the protective security detail for a visiting US president in Brussels, and Belgium's armed forces are a confirmed customer following a roughly €2.8 million December 2025 contract that names DroneGun Tactical specifically alongside DroneGun MkIII — though public reporting does not break out how many of each model that order includes.^8,10

An undisclosed Middle Eastern government's Ministry of Defense is a confirmed operator of 70 DroneGun Tactical units under a $3.2 million order announced in June 2018, though DroneShield has never named the purchasing country beyond describing it as a Western-allied government with one of the world's largest defense budgets.⁶ DroneShield's own product history also credits DroneGun Tactical with security use at the Commonwealth Games, an unnamed Winter Olympics, and the December 2019 Southeast Asian Games, though the host nations' security services are not named as confirmed long-term operators of the system in the sourcing found for this article, as opposed to one-off event security contracts.^5,9

DroneShield markets its dismounted jammer range broadly to militaries, law enforcement, corrections facilities, close-protection and VIP-security teams, and critical-infrastructure operators, on the logic that the underlying problem — an uncooperative small drone entering controlled airspace — looks similar across those buyer types.^6,10 Public sourcing for this article did not surface a named US federal agency confirmed to operate DroneGun Tactical specifically, as opposed to DroneShield's product line broadly; low-quality social-media reporting has speculated that a DroneShield jammer photographed with a 2026 US presidential security detail was a DroneGun, but outlets disagreed on whether the unit shown was Tactical or the newer Mk4, so no such operator is listed here as confirmed.

Within DroneShield's own range, DroneGun Tactical occupies the long-range, one-piece-rifle end of a family that otherwise trades range for portability. Against DroneGun MkIII, Tactical keeps roughly triple the weight in exchange for something in the range of two to five times the effective range depending on which era's spec sheet is compared, and unlike MkIII it was never marketed as a device a soldier would carry purely as a backup tool alongside a primary weapon — Tactical is closer to a dedicated, two-handed counter-drone weapon in its own right. DroneGun Mk4, introduced in 2023, was pitched explicitly as splitting the difference between Tactical's reach and MkIII's compactness, and by the mid-2020s appears to have taken over MkIII's spot in DroneShield's actively marketed catalogue while Tactical itself remains listed alongside it.¹

Against outside rivals, L3Harris's VAMPIRE illustrates a different design philosophy entirely for defeating the same small-drone threat: rather than a handheld jammer aimed by a dismounted operator, VAMPIRE is a vehicle-mounted kit firing a laser-guided 70mm rocket, trading DroneGun Tactical's non-kinetic, reusable engagements and sub-10-kilogram carry weight for a kinetic kill mechanism, a roughly 6 km engagement range, and a requirement for a host vehicle. The honest comparison is less "which system is better" than "which class of counter-drone tool a given customer needs" — DroneGun Tactical is the answer when the requirement is a single operator, on foot, denying a drone's control link at rifle range without needing a vehicle, magazine, or kinetic effector; VAMPIRE is the answer when the requirement is a vehicle-based unit that can put a guided round through a drone that a jammer alone cannot stop, such as a fully autonomous or GNSS-independent target.

MASS Assessment

Non-kinetic options (80) is DroneGun Tactical's clearest strength in this archive's scoring, and it scores essentially identically to its lighter MkIII sibling here — both deny a drone's control and navigation links through RF jamming alone, with no explosive, kinetic, or directed-energy component to manage. That gives either system a safety and legal-use profile — usable near crowds, airports, or friendly troops with a low risk of stray shrapnel or collateral damage — that most kinetic or laser-based c-uas systems in this leaf cannot claim.

Multi-target capability (30) is comparatively weak, and it is the direct tradeoff for that safety profile: a rifle-style jammer disrupts whatever single drone its operator has aimed at, for as long as they hold the trigger, with no ability to track or suppress a second inbound target simultaneously. Against a lone reconnaissance quadcopter that is rarely a problem; against a coordinated multi-drone swarm, a handheld jammer like DroneGun Tactical is fundamentally a one-at-a-time tool, which is why it is typically deployed as one layer alongside wider-area radar/EW systems rather than as a standalone base-defense solution.

What is the DroneShield DroneGun Tactical? It is a rifle-shaped, handheld RF and GNSS jammer built by Australian company DroneShield, designed to force small drones to land or return to their operator by disrupting the control link and, optionally, satellite navigation, rather than shooting them down.^1,2

What is DroneGun Tactical's range and how much does it weigh? DroneShield's current spec sheet lists an effective range of 2.5 km and a weight of 7.3 kg including two batteries; earlier product materials from the system's January 2018 launch cited a range "exceeding 1 kilometer" and a weight around 6.8 kg, reflecting how the spec sheet has evolved rather than a different product.^1,2,4

How is DroneGun Tactical different from DroneGun MkIII and DroneGun Mk4? DroneGun MkIII, launched in 2019, is a lighter, pistol-shaped, sub-2.5 kg unit meant to be carried one-handed as a secondary tool, trading range for portability. DroneGun Tactical, covered here, is the heavier, longer-range, self-contained rifle in the family. DroneGun Mk4, launched in 2023, was introduced as a middle ground between the two.¹

Who uses DroneGun Tactical? Confirmed users include Belgium's Federal Police, photographed carrying it during a 2021 presidential security detail in Brussels, Belgium's armed forces under a roughly €2.8 million December 2025 contract, and an undisclosed Middle Eastern Ministry of Defense that ordered 70 units for $3.2 million in June 2018.^6,8,10

Can civilians buy a DroneGun Tactical? No, not in most jurisdictions with meaningful spectrum regulation. In the United States, for example, FCC rules restrict intentional jamming devices to government, military and law-enforcement buyers regardless of the purchaser's intent.⁶