Drones have transformed war into Ukraine. The commanders sit on bunkers scanning screens, while surveillance drones look for target goals. Once detected, artillery or mortars could destroy them. Or, bombers or kamikazes are approaching to reduce. The problem is that interference and accidents demolish more than half of the drones in the air. But a new incorporation into the arsenal of both sides is demonstrating to be more effective: they are Fiber optic drones. Without radio signal that detects or interferes, they are difficult to stop.
In a kyiv factory, the production of the new drones is increasing 600 to month to a forecast of 10,000 by the end of summer. 3 D Tech It is one of the 11 Ukrainian companies dedicated to fiber optic drones. The company also manufactures about 3,000 kits to update existing drones every month. Mihailo, commander of the drone unit Typhoon That fights in eastern Ukraine, is excited. Currently, 20% of its drones are from the new generation, but estimates that for the boreal summer they will be the majority.
Unlike conventional drones, of which Ukraine produced 2.2 million last yearthose of optical fiber are controlled by an ultrafine filament similar to a sedal reminiscent of cable missile systems that were first deployed in 1945. They are not only difficult to tear down (at least for now), but the fiber optic cable guarantees that the image transmitted to the pilot is clear. It is the difference between moving from a blurred television image of the 70s to an HD quality, he says Yuriy Ganusyakwhose company supplies batteries to drone manufacturers.
The first fiber optic drones appeared on the front a year ago. Russia began to deploy them massively at the end of last year. Ukraine followed them a couple of months later. They played a fundamental role in the successful Russian counteroffensive in the Kursk region in March. Now They are used in Russian assaults in the East Battlefields. They are especially suitable for mountainous land where radio signals usually get lost.
Both parties compete to obtain fiber optic cable. On April 5, it was reported that Ukraine bombed a factory that produced it in Saransk, Russia. To date, adequate fiber has been produced in Ukraine. Oleksiy Zhulinskiy, Technical Director of 3 D Tech, states that the Chinese dominate the fiber market and that Russian and Ukrainian buyers have been found in Chinese factories where they both compete to acquire it. Prepaid orders have sometimes been overcome by Russian buyers who offer more money, delaying, but not stopping, you deliver their enemy. This month, 3 D Tech will start trying your own cable.
Unlike a kite, the fiber optic drone coil also flies, unwinding as it progresses. In the Zhulinskiy factory, 3D printers buzz while they create them. Chinese printers were not reliable and one of the reasons why many of Ukraine’s first generation fiber optic drones did not achieve their goals. Now, according to Zhulinskiy, the 80% succeeds.
Even so, not everyone is convinced. Look biharcommander of an artillery unit and drones in the Front of Orikhiv, in southern Ukraine, states that they are heavy and that training a pilot to pilot them takes months. Your cable can be entangled in the trees and shine with sunlight, which can reveal the location of the drone and its pilot. In addition, drones have a relatively short range, 10 to 15 km. This means that the pilot must be right in the front to impact enemy territory.
New ideas are being tested to counteract fiber optic drones. Both sides are building networks on roads and key positions, but these are not turning out to be a good defense. If drones are heard on the surface, the troops use shotguns to riddle them. 3 D Tech is Testing a drone with a trimmed shotgun to attack other drones.
Fiber optic drones may be the new fashion, but they are a provisional solution developed to avoid interference. In the Ukrainian arms race, the Holy Grail is a laser weapon capable of blinding or destroying the electronic core of any drone, missile, war plane or helicopter that approaches. In a technological fair held on April 13, Vadym Sukharevsky, Head of the Ukrainian Unmanned Systems Forces, demonstrated how Ukraine is testing his own laser system Tryzub To achieve precisely this. The useful life of any new military technology seems to be shortened more and more as the war extends.
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