Small arms fire is effective against the shahed drones in daytime https://en.defence-ua.com/news/how_ukrainian_soldiers_shot_shahed_136_drones_with_own_guns_at_night-5203.html
But how about a CIWS chambered in 5.56, 7.62 or 12.7? At least the first two rounds are extremely cheap compared to SAMs. So antidrone miniguns should theoretically work, but what have I missed? Why aren’t we building the guns/targeting systems?
They are deploying the gepard.
If antidrone minigun systems already existed, and were phased-out surplus then I expect they’d be going to ukraine too.
As to ‘we’, do you mean the USA? Why aren’t we building and sending new weapon systems to Ukraine? Ask Mike Johnson.