this post was submitted on 23 Apr 2025
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At a secret workshop in Ukraine’s north-east, where about 20 people assemble hundreds of FPV (first person view) drones, there is a new design. Under the frame of the familiar quadcopter is a cylinder, the size of a forearm. Coiled up inside is fibre optic cable, 10km (6 miles) or even 20km long, to create a wired kamikaze drone.

Capt Yuriy Fedorenko, the commander of a specialist drone unit, the Achilles regiment, says fibre optic drones were an experimental response to battlefield jamming and rapidly took off late last year. With no radio connection, they cannot be jammed, are difficult to detect and able to fly in ways conventional FPV drones cannot.

“If pilots are experienced, they can fly these drones very low and between the trees in a forest or tree line. If you are flying with a regular drone, the trees block the signal unless you have a re-transmitter close,” he observes. Where tree lined supply roads were thought safer, fibre optic drones have been able to get through.

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[–] Nurse_Robot@lemmy.world 11 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Huh, I remember one of the few draw backs of fiber optic cables being that you had to be very careful with them, because bending them could easily cause them to crack and no longer work. I'm guessing that must no longer be an issue!

[–] theit8514@lemmy.world 14 points 1 day ago (2 children)

The fiber we use at our datacenter is quite flexible but still gets damaged if you bend it too far. To roll it like they describe you would still want to have a fairly large drum (probably like 3-4 inches in diameter) which would make it pretty bulky for a small drone.

[–] gnutrino@programming.dev 8 points 1 day ago

They literally describe it as "the size of a forearm" so that about tracks with 3-4 inches diameter.

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[–] atzanteol@sh.itjust.works 7 points 1 day ago (5 children)

"Secret workshop"? Why are they talking openly to the press then?

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[–] febra@lemmy.world -5 points 20 hours ago (6 children)

Knowing how fragile fibre cable is especially when bent at weird angles (which is prone to happen in flight), this doesn't sound like the most genius idea. I guess we'll have to wait and see.

[–] OutlierBlue@lemmy.ca 7 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

Fibre cable is a lot stronger and more flexible than you'd think. The old days of very fragile cable are gone. You can use it and treat it in pretty much the same way you'd treat copper CAT6 cable in terms of bend radius.

[–] CmdrShepard42@lemm.ee 4 points 17 hours ago

If it was that bad, they wouldn't be using it. Consider that the same is true for regular munitions. They're meant to be disposable, so if they have a few duds, it's probably not the end of the world.

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