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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[–] Madison420@lemmy.world 28 points 1 day ago (2 children)

It's neither, they're spare wire reels for older tow missiles which were wired for the same reason.

[–] perestroika@lemm.ee 1 points 15 hours ago* (last edited 15 hours ago) (1 children)

It’s neither, they’re spare wire reels for older tow missiles which were wired for the same reason.

Nope, it's all telecom fiber. TOW uses copper to my knowledge (never seen one, not fully certain). Droners use telecom grade single mode fiber (fused silica, 125 micrometer diameter, acrylic coated).

[–] Madison420@lemmy.world 2 points 7 hours ago

https://www.thinkdefence.co.uk/2023/05/fibre-optic-guided-missiles-efog-m-polyphem-and-others/

Depends on the missile but in this case we know they've said they got the idea from old tow missile reels because the folks who built them made mention of it.

[–] Ziggurat@jlai.lu 7 points 1 day ago (2 children)

TIL thanks,

I heard about wired torpedo but didn't know it was also a thing for missiles

[–] Madison420@lemmy.world 10 points 1 day ago

Yep, still used in combat too and chances are you've seen a video and just didn't know.

Anytime you see a video filmed from behind a missile and it keeps making smingly random swirling jinking movements it's likely to be a tow missile.

https://youtu.be/IsOHo0oAc0c

[–] noughtnaut@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Curiously, the first wired torpedoes, you'd propel the torpedo forward by pulling on the wire that came out the back of it.