I guess you could, although the gripper would add a bit of mass to the drone. You still lose some energy from the round into the yeeted barrel, but not as much as having an open breech. Depending on the mass of the projectile vs the mass of the barrel that could be a worthwhile trade-off.

I don’t think that’ll do it. The propellant deflagration is so quick that the momentum of the drone means it can’t be accelerated backwards enough to significantly reduce the force on the airframe. Even if it did, that would just end up applying the acceleration to the internals such as the batteries and motors/engine instead. I think you would need a spring damper that would allow the weapon to recoil quickly and dissipate the energy more slowly, and I’m not sure you could make obe effective on something the size of a drone.

I was thinking about those, but I understand they tend to suffer from inaccuracy due to even slight imperfections in the manufacturing of the jet openings.

I think something more like a conventional round, with a heavier casing and more propellant might work. The casing gets ejected backwards and the projectile forwards, without imparting momentum to the barrel. You do need more propellant to get the same muzzle velocity though.

I’d imagine the shock loading into the drone’s structure would soon damage it if it was powerful enough to flip it. You’d need a significant damper to spread the shock out over a longer period. Alternatives are either recoilless rifles as suggested or something more akin to rockets, basically a tube that’s open at both ends, with a round that has enough propellant to fire without the need for a breech, and electronic ignition.

• George
• Bob
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…what do you mean, that’s not what you mean? It’s what you said!