“The revolution that Ukraine missed: why fiber-optic drones are changing everything on the battlefield – BBC October 31, 19:45 Share: Drones on a string are an extremely dangerous and almost invulnerable weapon, experts say (Photo: BBC Collage / Getty Images) Russian military began to actively use small quadcopters on the battlefield, which are almost impossible to neutralize. They are based on a rather old technology of information transmission using optical fiber, which”, — write on: ua.news
The revolution that Ukraine missed: why fiber-optic drones are changing everything on the battlefield — BBC Drones on a “string” are an extremely dangerous and almost invulnerable weapon, experts say (Photo: BBC Collage / Getty Images)
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Video recordings of damage to Ukrainian equipment and military by Russian FPV drones on fiber optics began to appear at the end of the summer. Already in autumn, Russian Z-publics in Telegram publish such pictures almost every day.
Most often, such drones are used in the Kursk region, but there are also recorded cases of their use in the Donetsk region and the Zaporizhia region.
Russian sources most often use the name of the fiber-optic drone as “Prince Vandal of Novgorod”. It is a product of the Ushkuynyk scientific and industrial center from Novgorod.
It was first used in battle on August 13 this year in Kurshchyna. Since then, dozens or even hundreds of photo and video confirmations of the hit have appeared “Vandal” into Ukrainian tanks, armored vehicles and dugouts.
The head of the company that produces “Vandal”, Oleksiy Chadaev, names the technology of his work “revolutionary”.
“Now there are already statistics from almost a thousand applications. It is very good: one or two breaks per 10 starts, let’s reduce this indicator. Then everything depends on the operator. Yes, the drone is heavy and clumsy, as it carries both a coil and a warhead. But, if you adapt, it is very accurate,” he said in an interview with TASS.
New-old invention
To control such a drone, that is, to transmit information from the operator to the drone itself, not a radio wave is used, but a light beam traveling along a special ultra-thin glass cable.
The idea of transmitting information using light waves was invented by physicists almost 170 years ago in Victorian England. British physicist John Tyndall conducted an experiment in which he beamed light along a jet of falling water, demonstrating signal transmission by total internal reflection.
However, the technologies for the practical implementation of these ideas appeared only in the 1930s.
In 1934, the American engineer Norman French received a patent for an optical telephone system in which speech signals were transmitted with the help of light through rods made of clear glass. 20 years later, an American company used the term “fiber optics” for the first time (fiber optics).
Another 20 years later, Rediffusion deployed the first commercial fiber-optic system for the transmission of analog television signals.
From that time, the commercial distribution of optical fiber communication systems began. However, they immediately tried to use it for military purposes.
In 1973, the US Navy first installed a fiber optic line aboard the Little Rock. In the USSR, the first fiber-optic communication lines appeared at several facilities in the late 1980s.
Subsequently, the use of such technologies in anti-tank systems became popular in other countries (ATGM). Here we can mention the Israeli Spike and its German modernized version Mells, which have the ability to adjust the flight of the missile with the help of an optical fiber attached to it. The range of such a weapon is up to 4-5 km.
What is the principle of operation of optical fiber
Everything sounds quite simple: an electrical signal on one device is converted into light through a special converter, which moves through a cable to another receiver, where it is converted back into an electrical signal.
The source of this light is a semiconductor microlaser or LED. Coding is carried out by changing the intensity of light. The speed of information transfer in this way is lower than the speed of light (this is due to the power of microlasers and beam refraction), but it is still significantly higher than with other methods.
You can interrupt such a connection only physically, for example, by severely damaging the fiber optic cable.
In practice, it looks like the drone flies as if tied to a thin thread, the other end of which is located on the operator’s remote control. This fiber optic thread is gradually unwound from a spool attached to the quadcopter.
This is radically different from how drones currently operate on the frontline. They will receive information from the control panel using radio waves.
By installing radio interference on a certain frequency on which the drone operates, it can be neutralized. This is actually the main task of WB tools (electronic warfare).
The past years of a full-scale war were characterized by a constant confrontation between anti-aircraft missiles and drones. FPV manufacturers were moving to new frequency ranges, radio electronics engineers had to respond quickly to this. Such ““frequency war” could continue for a very long time.
Fiber optic drones are fundamentally changing everything.
From now on, no EW or other means of electromagnetic interaction will have any effect on deadly drones. It is necessary to urgently look for an absolute about a new solution, experts believe.
The most unfortunate thing for Ukraine is that it was Ukraine that was the first to take this revolutionary step, and not the enemy: all the prerequisites for this were in place, experts in the field emphasize.
Drones “no perspective”
“The first such drone was developed by us – attention! — a year and a half ago!” — the young Ukrainian engineer Maksym Sheremet, who heads the Dronarn organization, does not hide his indignation.
Indeed, as early as March 2024, the mass media published publications about his invention — a fiber-optic drone called “Banderik-Strichka”.
This first sample had a tactical range of about 1 km, a time in the air of 15 minutes, and it could carry up to 3 kg of payload.
Last year “Banderik” successfully passed the state tests of the Ministry of Defense, but did not enter the series. The inventor says that the military leadership told him about “irrelevance” of this technology.
“They laughed in our faces and said that it is not relevant, it has no right to life. They said: why do we need this, if there are already drones that fly anyway? he says.
His words are confirmed by the well-known Ukrainian specialist and consultant in the field of military radio technologies Serhiy Beskrestnov (call sign Flash).
“The first flights on optical fiber were shown to the military by our Ukrainian guys as early as 2022. This decision did not arouse interest at the time,” he said.
Already this year, at least two groups of Ukrainian developers have taken up this topic again and brought their products to potential readiness for the series, he added Flash.
“And the product was launched by the enemy in series and in mass use on the front. Unfortunately, this is the trend of the entire war. We are the first to invent, they scale faster,” he added.
Beskrestnov also said that after the Russians began actively using fiber-optic drones, he turned to him “an officer from the General Staff of the Armed Forces” with a request “urgently come up with something against these drones.”
But it is precisely with the invention of means of counteraction to these invulnerable drones that there is a main problem. As of now, none of the parties has a ready solution.
The Air Force of Ukraine sent a request to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine to confirm information about problems with the adoption of fiber-optic drones.
Pros and cons of fiber optic drones
“You can call these (fiber optic — ed.) wedding, hobby, tourist, kitchen or “thread” drones. But anyone who has seen the successful use of strike drones at least once in their life understands how serious a weapon it is in the right hands,” the volunteer and leader urges. Air Intelligence Support Center Maria Berlinska.
However, not everyone thinks fiber optic drones are real “a revolutionary breakthrough” in this war.
Ivan Kyrychevskyi, an expert at the information and consulting agency Defense Express, says that the use of fiber optic cable is only one of the possible ways of the evolution of drones.
“The presence of an optical fiber does not add plus 100500 points to its striking capability, does not make its warhead more powerful and does not make it invulnerable to being shot down, for example, by shotguns,” he told VVS Ukraine.
According to him, both sides are currently experimenting with various modifications of UAVs — installing optical fiber or machine vision and finding out what works better in real combat conditions.
The accuracy of hitting a drone, Kyrychevskyi emphasizes, largely depends not only on the stability of its control, but also on the aerodynamic characteristics of the device and the skill of the operator.
So talk about “revolutionaryness” of a long-known technology, in his opinion, prematurely.
“This is a manifestation of standard emotional swings in Ukrainians. Sometimes we laugh at the Russians, then, on the contrary, we give incredible power to their weapons, – he says. “And this is just another round in the development of technologies and weapons.”
As for specific comments, experts draw attention to three key circumstances.
First, this maneuverability drone Indeed, it seems that the UAV, “tied” to the operator on a thin string, is a very fragile structure, and any pole or tree will easily neutralize it. Therefore, they say, such a device can fly only for short distances and only along roads, so that there are no physical obstacles.
Engineer Maksym Sheremet, who has repeatedly operated such a drone, calls this statement “nonsense”.
According to him, the cable gradually unwinds itself during the flight and calmly rests on top of trees or other obstacles. It is very difficult to break it. The only caveat is that it is not advisable to turn sharply or descend, and then rise, so as not to twist the fiber.
“Controlling FPV on optics is much easier. Because the operator does not lose the image, there is no need for skills to fly through the EW zone, there is no need to understand the principles of the radio horizon,” he adds.
The second reason for experts’ skepticism is this high cost of optical fiber. Indeed, says Sheremet, this was one of the main warnings of the Ukrainian General Staff when he spoke about “irrelevance” of fiber-optic drones.
As of last year, only a 10 km coil with such a cable cost about 3 thousand dollars. This is almost 10 times more expensive than a regular small FPV quadcopter.
But, the leader emphasizes “Dronarni”, now the order of figures for the cost of optical fiber has changed significantly. This is due to the large number of Chinese products on the market and the beginning of its production already in Ukraine.
Now, says Sheremet, it was possible to reduce the price from 3 thousand to only 100 dollars. In this case, the cost of the finished UAV will be about 1,000 dollars.
And finally, the third claim to the fiber-optic drone is this small payload. This problem actually exists, since such a UAV, in addition to ammunition, must also carry both quite heavy reel with cable.
Such a coil weighs about 1.2 kg for 10 km, and about 2 kg for 15 km. Thus, a 10-inch FPV drone with a payload of 3−4 kg will be able to take “on board” small ammunition weighing about 1.5 kg.
But, firstly, the larger the drone, the greater the payload, and secondly, even such ammunition can cause serious damage to equipment, given that the UAV will attack the target without hindrance, and the operator will constantly see the enemy on high-quality video provided by fiber optic .
How to counteract
How to neutralize a fiber-optic UAV is an open question. “Combating such drones is one of the most relevant and serious topics that all manufacturers are thinking about,” says engineer Maksym Sheremet.
The experts interviewed by the Ukrainian Air Force point to the following options for solving a complex problem.
First, to destroy a drone, it must first be detected.
Standard means of radio-electronic intelligence (PEP) are powerless here, since, obviously, such a drone and its control panel do not use radio communication.
Other detection methods remain. The simplest is visual, that is, optical detection. To do this, you can install special modules with video cameras on armored vehicles, which will constantly detect such objects in the sky.
Secondly, there is a possibility of detection of these drones using ultrasonic or infrared sensors. Third, these drones can be detected by an acoustic sensor.
However, that’s all “raw ideas” that require careful processing and, most importantly, practical testing on the battlefield.
The second aspect of neutralizing a fiber-optic drone is its direct destruction. Here everything is at the same time clearer, but also more difficult to implement.
Obviously, the only way to prevent damage is to shoot down such a drone after detection while approaching the target. This can be done using netcomets, which are already sometimes used on the battlefield by both sides, as well as shotguns with buckshot.
Another option is to stretch special inconspicuous nets, for example, made of strong fishing line, over the positions and places of equipment parking. The drone gets entangled in it and may detonate prematurely or fall.
In any case, the state and the best technological brains of Ukraine should urgently work in the direction of creating their own fiber-optic UAVs, says Maksym Sheremet. In his opinion, the next year can bring a revolutionary breakthrough in the application of such technology on the battlefield, as happened in 2022-2023 with FPV drones. At first they were not taken seriously, but now they have become almost the main weapon and the cases of their use are already counted in the millions on both sides.
Fiber-optic drones are an even more deadly weapon. First of all, because there is still no one against her “antidotes”.
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