Shilka Reborn: How a 1960s Anti-Aircraft Gun Became Ukraine’s Drone-Killing Workhorse

Ukraine looked at a weapon built when rotary phones were considered high tech and asked a simple question: what’s the minimum we need to change to make this thing kill drones today?

“Shilka” of Ukraine’s 36th Marine Brigade firing at a ground target. Early April 2023. Photo: 36th Marine Brigade

Some weapons retire gracefully.

Others get dragged out of storage, wiped down with WD-40, and shoved back into the fight because history refuses to cooperate.

And then there’s the Shilka, technically the ZSU-23-4, a Soviet relic that should, …