A weapon entirely immune to jamming: How Ukraine is rolling out production of fibre-optic drones
The Ukrainian military once believed drones that communicate with their operators via fibre-optic links would not be necessary on the battlefield. However, that perspective has shifted with the advancement of electronic warfare technology, and now Ukraine is producing fibre-optic drones.
Ukraine's Armed Forces launched an offensive in Russia's Kursk Oblast in early January. Russian Telegram accounts noted the quality of Ukrainian electronic warfare (EW) equipment, which reportedly managed to bring down all Russian drones – except for the fibre-optic ones.
Russian fibre-optic drones differ significantly from conventional First-Person View (FPV) unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). They are controlled through an exceptionally long wire that unravels over several kilometres during flight. Since these drones do not rely on radio communications, even the finest electronic EW equipment is powerless against them.