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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[–] atzanteol@sh.itjust.works 7 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

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

[–] gnutrino@programming.dev 25 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

Because the secret is where it is, not that it exists.

[–] atzanteol@sh.itjust.works 1 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

Why talk about it at all though? What military benefits from telling the press about its newest weapons?

[–] IncogCyberspaceUser@lemmy.world 18 points 19 hours ago* (last edited 19 hours ago) (1 children)

The tech itself isn't secret, both sides use it. With Russia being ahead apparently. From the article:

A video from a Russian military Telegram channel from last month demonstrates their ominous capability. A fibre optic drone, the nose of the yellow cylinder housing the coil clearly visible, flies with precision a few centimetres from the ground, to strike a Ukrainian howitzer concealed in a barn, a location clearly previously considered safe.

But as Fedorenko acknowledges, it is Russia that, at least for now, “is well ahead of us” – largely because Moscow has had greater access to fibre optic cabling, with Ukraine scrambling to catch up.

[–] atzanteol@sh.itjust.works 1 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

Y'all answering "what" to a "why" question.

[–] x00z@lemmy.world 1 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago)

It's news about how the current battlefield works. Recently Ukraine even explained how they were finding and ambushing Russian drone operators. As soon as Russia is aware of the tactics and methods, it's not a secret anymore and it can be shared. There's tons of reporters that are always looking around for news about the war.