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Fiber optic drones are changing combat operations
- qingcharles 2y agoOK, this is totally wild. I did not expect them to mean the drones are tethered to the base station by fiber.
- ggm 2y agoTethered but .. not constrained by that tether. Like annoying dogs in the dog-park whose owners feel free to real out the fishing line and never reel it in.
- littlecosmic 2y agoBetter to find a postwar fibre optic than a postwar mine, I guess
- abeppu 2y agoI'm surprised this works as well as they're describing! There's a single comment about risk that the fiber could become tangled or broken, but they show the drones going through dense forest. I would think that becoming tangled or snagged would rapidly become a serious issue.
- ggm 2y agoThe reel is on the drone. If the reel was at base, the risk would be catches limiting forward motion of the drone. But the drone is paying out fibre behind it, the risk is that mechanism fails, but thats a risk either way.
- hkpack 2y agoWhy would it get tangled? The reel is on the drone side, so it just unrolls freely as the drone moves forward.
- rasz 2y agoIRL is messy. Iv seen a compilation of russian fiber drone fails vid recently. Sharp turns, excessive acceleration, but mostly flying near tree branches and other dynamic objects - wind gust yanking on already laid fiber. Comes down to pilot quality, with time even fetal alcohol syndrome victims will learn how to operate them reliably.
- raducu 2y ago> Iv seen a compilation of russian fiber drone fails vid recently. One anxiety of mine is being teased by an FPV drone -- with fiber optics it's much easier to defend against as a foot soldier -- if you can loop once around a tree and find the fiber optics cable, you can easily snap it and bye bye drone. Also, given the pilot has to be more conservative with his maneuvers, shotguns will be more effective because the target is easier to lead.
- walterbell 2y agoMarch 2024, "Fiber optic drone control beats any RF jammer", 250 comments, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41143322 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41143322 August 2024, commercial availability, https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidhambling/2024/08/20/russia-launches-new-drone-weapons-against-kursk-offensive/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidhambling/2024/08/20/russia... German company HIGHCAT is demonstrating its HMX fiber-optic drone in Ukraine this month. Now combat footage has emerged of what appears to be the first strikes by this type of weapon ... The controller can use an AI system heavier and more powerful than a drone could carry, taking advantage of high-resolution imagery to track and identify objects in real time. The cheap drone is expended but the expensive controller is reused for multiple strikes. Six months ago this technology was not even a rumor. Now it is on the open market and destroying targets.
- thenthenthen 2y agoShenzhen speed ;)
- generalizations 2y agoTruly. The US is going to have to deregulate and speed up if it doesn't want to be left behind.
- rapsey 2y agoWhen the guy in charge tries to do that he kind of gets called a fascist, an idiot and a nazi...
- piva00 2y agoThat's not the reason why the guy in charge is being called a fascist, if you do believe so you ought to educate yourself instead because you do not understand what's happening, much less the criticism.
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- ggm 2y agoI am reminded of a poetic moment from a former US army person who told me of sunlight glinting off the trail of wires left behind after practice launches of wire guided MANPAD type systems. He said they were like spider silk in the dawn.
- m463 2y ago...flight of the valkyries playing in his wired earbuds...
- nradov 2y agoThose were probably anti-tank missiles such as the BGM-71 TOW. I don't think there are any MANPADS that use wire guidance: all of the modern ones are IR.
- ggm 2y agoThank you for the acronym correction.
- maxglute 2y agohttps://i.imgur.com/JTfpiXV.jpeg https://i.imgur.com/JTfpiXV.jpeg I think this is fibres littering trees in Kursk.
- raducu 2y ago> He said they were like spider silk in the dawn. Russian FPV operators have already lost their life due to this precise effect and the fact they operated from the same building multiple times.
- gngoo 2y agoThe weird part is that they are also advertised on Instagram. More than once I have gotten an ad from an account showcasing these fiber optic drones and their R&D operation. And you can openly contact them for inquries.
- mint2 2y agoDoesn’t this have the added benefit of the operator not broadcasting their position? So anti jamming but also anti-pilot getting shelled/counter droned? Or is tracing the drone operators not so common?
- fnordpiglet 2y agoOther than the fiber optic cable leading directly back to the controller?
- Klaster_1 2y agoDoes it matter if the other party has drones too and knows where everyone is?
- baq 2y agoThis is not so simple, drones everywhere mean anti-drone drones with shotguns, too. It’s like Total Annihilation, you must outproduce the enemy or you’ll get swarmed. We’re witnessing doctrine rewriting events here.
- raducu 2y agoThere have already been russian operators killed this way -- they re-used the same launch spot and in the morning sun the fiber optics are clearly visible from air -- their position was identified and then shelled.
- Klaster_1 2y agoI recommend reading these two recent reports by Shura Burtin, these go into some details about impact of drone warfare: * https://meduza.io/en/feature/2025/03/27/please-don-t-use-my-name https://meduza.io/en/feature/2025/03/27/please-don-t-use-my-... - less focused on the subject. * https://meduza.io/feature/2025/03/25/terminator-veschiy-film https://meduza.io/feature/2025/03/25/terminator-veschiy-film - more focus on the subject (no English version yet, use Google Translate or something).
- trallnag 2y agoFucking hell, these are some dire articles
- _blk 2y agoI wonder if the stream's encrypted or if you could just patch in and send it back to the sender
- mindwok 2y agoI wonder if you could have a mothership drone situation, where one drone sits high and out of range, and others fly out to their targets. Would prevent the cable getting caught on stuff and stop the cable leading back to the operator.
- xnx 2y agoCables would probably snap under their own weight, right? Laser communication might be a better bet for a mothership dropping guided drone "bombs".
- 01100011 2y agoCouple of dumb thoughts: - Can another drone grab the fiber and walk back to your base? - Can you use the fiber to a master drone which acts as a repeater/controller for normal RF drones? Yes you can still jam them, but with the tx/rx closer to the action you need a more effective jammer. - How much power can these types of fiber optic cable carry? A couple watts max? Yes I know that's not what the intent is I'm just curious if you could use it that way. - On the one hand glass isn't the worst thing we could be dumping into the environment but damn that sounds like some wicked splinters... Sure, war is never kind to the environment. Just saying...
- tangjurine 2y agofiber optic is glass and doesn't conduct electricity...
- hgomersall 2y agoPower over fiber is absolutely a thing: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power-over-fiber https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power-over-fiber
- gotts 2y ago> Can another drone grab the fiber and walk back to your base? Can not grab, it will get caught by branch trees and debris. The launch site is not where operators are located, most often it is well hidden, somewhat protected and hundreds of meters away. > Can you use the fiber to a master drone which acts as a repeater/controller for normal RF drones? Battery is the bottleneck, master drone has to stay long enough in the air for all drone to hit their targets. > How much power can these types of fiber optic cable carry? can't use it that way.
- yzydserd 2y agoWhat’s the old adage, is it “I don’t know how WW3 will end, but WW4 will end with rock paper scissors”? Right now, my money’s on scissors.
- Ostrogoth 2y agoHere is a photo of dozens of spent fiber optic lines hanging in trees in Ukraine. It’s interesting to see how quickly the FPV drone tech evolves. https://www.instagram.com/p/DHZdHK_Ryyp/ https://www.instagram.com/p/DHZdHK_Ryyp/
- theyknowitsxmas 2y agoWay to lead the enemy to operator HQ. They don't even need to follow it just triangulate paths like good ol radio.
- L_226 2y agopretty difficult to follow 10km of unspooled cable over broken terrain when you've just had an FPV drone explode on your position