this post was submitted on 15 Feb 2025
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[Combat] Russian soldier shows fields covered in fiber optic wires from Ukrainian drones. (i.imgur.com)
submitted 1 week ago by LaFinlandia@sopuli.xyz to c/ukraine@sopuli.xyz
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[–] perestroika@lemm.ee 2 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

The keyword is "optical power": laser light. But a drone doesn't need laser light to fly, it needs electrical power. Payload carrying drones need considerable amounts, 1 kilowatt might be typical. There is no readily available equipment to convert that amount of optical power into electrical power inside a drone, at an acceptable efficiency (solar panels have an efficiency of ~25%).

In addition, it helps to know: these drones use a single 25 micrometer single mode fiber (the power of the fiber transceivers is in milliwatts). It is hard to pack considerable power into that cross section, the optics are complicated (optics aside, a kilowatt class laser is very expensive). When you transmit laser power over fiber, you generally benefit from using a cable made of many fibers, or a considerably thicker multimode fiber.