Northrop Grumman has unveiled its Raid Hunter chain gun system, adding a new layer to anti-drone swarm defenses by combining cutting-edge AI sensors, precision-guided ammunition, and a motor-driven chain gun feed firing up to 200 rounds per minute.
Countermeasure that might be effective against certain drones or missiles at a certain distance won't be effective against others due to any number of factors – these can range from technical limitations to simple economics. The bottom line is that there's no one-size-fits-all solution.
Northrop Grumman’s Raid Hunter aims to fill the last-ditch point-defense gap. That is, when incoming threats survive the gauntlet of longer-range layered countermeasures, this final line of defense must hold.
We’re introducing Raid Hunter™, our newly named 50mm gun-based air defense system designed to defeat mass, mixed aerial raids with cost-effective interceptors and deep magazine effectors which can be delivered to the warfighter at scale. Learn more: https://t.co/gnOzpo0RA3 pic.twitter.com/oTqORTG9Q4
— Northrop Grumman (@NGCNews) August 11, 2026
The concept is similar to the air defense screen used by aircraft carrier groups. There are all sorts of defenses ready to counter various threats, but if a supersonic missile can't be knocked out, spoofed, or decoyed, the target ship is usually equipped with a radar-guided cannons that snap into action and spew out a cloud of armor-piercing tungsten-alloy rounds that the missile slams into like it hitting a wall, if you'll pardon the mixed metaphor.
Raid Hunter is essentially an updated version of this with a few new twists thrown in as a way to handle drone swarms and missiles as quickly and as cheaply as possible. Built around the company's Bushmaster 50-mm chain gun, it's linked into an AI-enabled command-and-control system that processes incoming sensor data from a multi-domain layered air defense network. That means it can identify, target, and lock onto multiple incoming threats.
The other end of the deal is the ammunition used in the chain gun. These aren't dumb rounds, but 50-mm precision-guided rounds that have active control surfaces that turn them into steerable micro-projectiles that can course-correct in mid-flight if the target tries to evade. Along with this, the chain gun has an electrically powered automated reload system that gives it a very deep magazine.
The upshot is that the company claims that the Raid Hunter has a high single-shot probability of kill against small, high-speed, or maneuverable airborne targets, which means the available ammunition goes a lot further, preventing the defenses from being overwhelmed by sheer numbers.
Raid Hunter is currently undergoing accelerated testing and is expected to be deployed in the near future.
"Raid Hunter addresses a critical short-range defense gap by delivering rapid, high-capacity protection against complex, mass aerial threats like cruise missiles and drone swarms," said Kenn Todorov, vice president and general manager, command and control & weapons integration, Northrop Grumman. "It provides warfighters with a cost-effective, flexible tool to decisively defeat evolving threats now and in the future – strengthening the security of vital bases and infrastructure."
Source: Northrop Grumman
