Russia's Strange Wired Drone Exposed

On the modern battlefield, drone warfare has become a staple of 21st-century combat, and the Russian-Ukrainian conflict is the most important example of all. The most recent discovery from Serhii Flesh, a Ukrainian expert in drone operations, casts a new light on this ever-evolving strategy.
In March 2024, Flesh stumbled upon a downed quadcopter, but it had a twist. Instead of wireless connections, this machine's lifeline is a tangible one: a fiber optic cable that once connected it over miles of terrain to its controller.
Now lying inert in the Ukrainian field, the drone and its cable spool immediately sparked viral attention. The images are raising questions from military enthusiasts all over the world about the weapon’s unique set of advantages-immunity from electronic jamming, undetectable operations, and secure communications.
Yet, with innovation comes new challenges. But as the images of these kite-like drones make their rounds, some wonder if they’re either a clever workaround or a sign of increasing desperation, ready to unravel thread by fiber optic thread…
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[@timwaeyaert8339]

Nothing new here, if you work in IT, cabled connections are almost always better than wireless. in the age of electronic warfare, cables that cant be jammed make perfect sense.

[@darkcloud5830]

That is nothing. The West claiming Russia is using Washing Machine chips is what drives me crazy.

[@timan2039]

Why not? They are just simple processors I imagine.

[@BabaYagaBabyBaddaBoom]

Old tech discovered in Canada years ago when RC flyers were experimenting with fly by wire and the use of sending light signals down 3 intertwined rolls of fishing line .

[@Reach41]

No 6th generation fighter has a wired connection, nor do precision guided bombs or cruise missiles.

[@Sniperboy5551]

I’m sure having a cable that leads right back to the pilot is tactically advantageous. Optic fiber is impossible to jam though, which is smart.

[@sundragon7703]

In the 70s-80s, a handful of US Army soldiers cobbled together what eventually be called the FOGM (fiber optic guided missile) battery, which was an array of small dumb bombs slaved to a guide-able propulsion unit that was relaying real time information via fiber optic lines. (An inexpensive VLS) The FOG-M system last long even though a big defense contractor "picked up the ball and ran away with it". 60 Minutes did a segment on the FOG-M. At the time, the FOG-M upset the status quo on weapons development. 1) Soldiers do not design weapons. 2) Inexpensive weapons were not what the corporations wanted to sell.

[@Hunter_Nebid]

Sounds like the early version of the TOW missile to me.

[@MasterMayhem78]

What’s obvious to me but doesn’t seem to be to others is that the radio connection could be used for redundancy, in case of issues the cable could be cut on the drone side and radio connection could be re-established to regain control or increase its range.

[@jormungand72]

what is obvious to me, is that those radio communications could be intercepted and even overwritten... as explained in the video as to why they use tethered connections

[@capitalq-1]

You probably missed the obvious point of electronic jamming

[@Poppagee69]

It's old tech discovered in Canada years ago when RC flyers were experimenting with the use of sending light signals down 3 intertwined rolls of fishing line .

[@kendelmccarley]

DARPA had a fiber linked drone program back in 2007, called Close Combat Lethal Recon. It evolved in Aerovironment’s RF linked Switchblade, partly because fiber was seen as an environmental hazard. Fiber worked great, though. Glass fiber is very strong longitudinally. If the UAV reached the end of the fiber, it would just be pulled down by the tether.

[@craigsawyer6453]

Seven miles of optic cable communication air to air offers some interesting possibilities between a chain of multiple drones and a mothership.

[@nedkelly9688]

omg so far behind when countries have AI and AI swarm drones and mother ships and AI systems can be completely closed off so no one can hack or use electronic warfare. countries are now developing laser anti drone weapons and soon a cable will not do anything..

[@HeyRetodd]

Seems like a simple solution to many problems. Much like the Americans spending time and resources to develop a pressurized pen that will write in zero G. The Russians just went with a pencil

[@Hunter_Nebid]

Meh. We still walked on the moon. Ivan still hasn't. 🇺🇸

[@Codename_Horizon]

they went with pens because if you have to sharpen a pencil (or it breaks) the dust will get everywhere and fuck with systems

[@canadiangemstones7636]

Those zero g space pens are handy af too, who uses pencils outside orc country?

[@heisljulius]

If russia uses old tech it's a sign of desperation. If they test new tech it's also a sign of desperation. If ukraine does it it's resourcefulness and ingenuity.

[@darkcloud5830]

Damn fiber optics into a washing machine chip. That is some hi-tech sh!t. 😂😂😂😂

[@juliepura4976]

Why would anyone put the spool on the drone?? It’s heavy , bulky , you can mount the spool on the controls, just like the wired missles most of the world’s armies use now !! That would work better for the drone !!

[@haedubabaganush]

Not necessarily. It could be that a land spooling might increase the changes of snagging and bringing the drone down...also, the drone would have likely greater weight to pull against whereas, if mounted on the drone, apart from the initial weight, the unspooling may be easier, and if the wire does get snagged, it just simply unspools more wire. I would be they tried the first option and ran into problems. I wonder if it reverts to wired comms once the wire is totally unspooled?

[@InquisitiveBaldMan]

Wire guided tech is ancient. At least 100 years old. Wire guided torpedos were first i think.

[@InquisitiveBaldMan]

I mean its literally a joke compared to sending a drone 1000 miles and it deciding the target for itself. As is happening currently.

[@amacca2085]

Yeah I think you’ve missed the point

[@InquisitiveBaldMan]

@@amacca2085 I am affraid you missed the point. Having to control a drone manually by any means, is not an amazing control system or any sort of high tech future. AI controlling itself is the future.

[@emjizone]

Fiber optic cables poses challenges that are different from *copper* cables. They have a much lesser resistance to curvature and shear, making them hardly suitable for fast lateral acceleration and rotation-stabilized ammunitions. Also, they rely on the refractive index ratio between the medium and their inner material, so it's possible that they don't work underwater the same way as in the air, unless you put them in an insulation sheath, unlike what seems to be done for those small suicide shell-carriers. Nothing engineers can't solve, I guess. I say that because the cables used last century were extremely different from those, and required a completely different decoding technology. Last century, the first cable-guided ammunitions or vehicles were analog.

[@jormungand72]

you seem to be confusing recon with assault. these drones are for reconnaissance, not as a replacement for guided munitions.

[@Act1veSp1n]

This has been in the war for like 1.5 years now.

[@terryfreeman1018]

Fiber optic controlled like a wire guided Tow.

[@HDSME]

Yes but the tow Flys straight linear ot up down round and round

[@precisionguesswork5394]

Fiber optic fishing line?

[@Diskord1982]

Skynet is coming, a bit later than we thought but its coming.

[@ScraggyDogg]

A.i. is the next step. Not cables or fibre optics, that's a backwards step in tech. A.i. Will target, no need for communications if and when its made good enough. Idt that far off either.

[@michealjackson8269]

weaknesses: 1.extra weight of the wire 2. the wire can be back tracked

[@ToeCutter454]

the other big advantage of fiber optic over radio control is the latency, especially over distance so it gives a much better feedback and control.

[@Reach41]

The solution is full drone autonomy. Targets can be marked by laser from high altitude surveillance aircraft for drones to home on, GPS coordinates for drone targets, even photos of targets and local terrain for autonomous drone navigation and targeting.

[@lemonrand1]

carrying a RPG round, likely one way trip, fiber optic cable must be worth it..

[@paulking7019]

I had thought about this just the other day before I knew about this. Ukraine already uses larger drones to drop small ones so I thought take this a bit further and have the Large mother drone stay out of Russian Jammer range and launch the smaller "wire" guided DPGs (Drone Propelled Grenades aka fpv drones). The cable or wire would not need to be spooled out nearly as far as the Russian drone. A few hundred meters or more could even be far enough. The mother drone would act as the radio relay back to the operators controlling the DPGs..

[@AtroposLeshesis]

Why don't they just relay signals with a repeater on another drone or two. Use the LORA frequency or something

[@Pukovnik141]

Because it can be jammed if you know the frequency and mode. Wire is the most reliable way of communication.

[@TheInfidel_SlavaUA]

The most feasible all around use case for these types of drones are REPEATER Drones, High Altitude Surveillance, highly covert operations in suitable terrain.

[@penroc3]

as someone who flies drones the higher up and stronger your antenna to broadcast a strong direct signal, they have AESA antenna

[@robertpatrick3350]

1st world war tech….. that’s how forward observation team’s worked moving to a position with a spool of cable and phoning back…. Discarded the line if the position was abandoned.

[@evilfingers4302]

Wireless Drones may have limited range and are susceptible to RF Jammers, they are still better than Tethered Wired Drones for the obvious reasons stated in the video, Fiber Optic Drones should only be used for Surveillance over the battlefield like how Observer Balloons were used during the US Civil War and WW1.

[@caty863]

It's inevitable that AI is going to be the preferred mode of drone control sooner rather than later. It's unhackable, unjammable, and effective enough in the combat conditions.

[@jaimeortega4940]

Better bet would be totally autonomous or a hybrid system one that is steered initially has a cable/fly by wire tether but once a target is locked on the drone ditches the cable and attacks drops or fires explodes its payload.

[@davidwhiteford4936]

Unlikely? I'm amazed we have not seen this used sooner? There must be a fiber optic supply or cost hurdle. This control method won't last long though, as Multi-Level Mission Autonomy will become common soon, whereby secondary and tertiary mission fallback goals can automatically be selected based on field conditions/situational factors encountered. Also zone area hunt and target select modes will be a popular option, even in cheap military drone control boards. It is easy to see that before long artillery will transform into primarily waves of autonomous heat seeking anti-personnel drones, because when there is no infantry support tanks and other vehicles don't get very far!

[@auro1986]

you also have wire guided missiles

[@oldskoolt6883]

They should use a large, high altitude, unwired Mothership drone with signal jammers of all kinds. Then attach 6 or 8 smaller fiber optic guided drone & use them for more accurate data collection & bombs. But, after watching the Ukrainians' master drones so quickly, I'm sure they're already building them.

[@christow7989]

Oh, you mean like a blimp? Like they used in WW1? Why not make it a weapons platform as well. But, if it's in a holding pattern, or set up to loiter, it would be a good target. I'm sure these things have been talked about. Especially since they've gone to wire guided drones now. Maybe it would be better to make a drone land vehicle. They already have the drones for the sea and ocean, now with air, they just need to make land drones and bots or mech suits to complete the circle. The land drones could be powered like EVs are, with the lithium batteries. Shit, that would even make it better to be used like a sapper.

[@johncole4183]

How the hell are these drones capable of carrying all that weight? An rpg warhead and 10 miles of Phiber optic cable are far from light

[@The38alt]

I'm assuming the wires include power. That way the drones could have more power.

[@jormungand72]

10 miles of cable... are not floating in the air with it... at some point that cable is going to touch the ground, and the spool is back at the command center, not mounted to the drone... and the wire they showed was like, 30 gauge copper strand... sure, thats certainly not the wire being used, as a wire that thin would easily break under its own weight, but if you are flying your drone at 250 feet, you will likely have about 400 feet of slack between the drone and the ground.

[@johncole4183]

@The38alt ok makes sense. I don't know much about drones. We bought one a few years ago from best buy and the slightest wind would blow it all over the place

[@Lipi19821]

​@@jormungand72 the fiberoptic cable spool was on the drone.... and it had baterie too, so no power over fiberoptic (wich is afaik imposible anyway)

[@obama-bin_laden]

How would this work? The fibre optics would break. This is almost impossible considering the terrain. You need clear environment for this.

[@Pukovnik141]

Not necessarily. Fiber optic is flexible. (thin glass cable is very flexible, not like window glass) Only problem would be length of optic cable.

[@astratr3b345]

at what altitude you see earth curvature ???

[@bowgibbly1]

Body count will tell you what it's accomplished

[@emjizone]

As long as first-line combattants are humans and not replaced with robots, yes, alas.

[@kylehogan2247]

Those cables gotta be expensive used like this 🤔

[@JohnNjengaCOCO]

War is expensive. China makes cheaper fiber cables.

[@Pukovnik141]

It depends how you look at it. Wire guided ATGMs are using optic fiber in the same way. If it manages to destroy target it is worth it. It also hides operator since there is no radio waves sent and enemies can't detect the source. Many drone operators were counter attacked by artillery because other side detected signal from controller.

[@kylehogan2247]

@@Pukovnik141 oh absolutely; it just seems pricy for a nation cut off from most of the world and unable to make a positive net profit, you know? I completely agree with you when it comes to the benefits. I just wonder if it helps strain their resources at a faster pace . Your points are more than valid and imo accurate

[@blacksmith88]

Far from artificial intelligence.

[@jormungand72]

soon they will start using lasers. not for guidance, but for secure data transfer via optical sensors. line of sight may be limited by terrain, but then they will evolve to satellite or other aerial relay points such as high altitude balloons.

[@Pukovnik141]

Lasers have disadvantage of light being scattered and/or obscured by atmospheric conditions. That is why EM waves are still used for communication, and why Laser weapons have limited use. It would be easier to use aesa antenna/receivers that direct signals.

[@usamaizm]

What if the battery 🔋 is a feign and it’s actually wire powered.

[@BrokenhornKT]

Interesting idea, Very clever.. but I think will be easy to figure out where they are being used. With the problem of entanglement with the Line, it would have to be use Basically in a Straight line attack from the User to not let that happen, they maybe off to the side, depends on the users line of site and Obstacles' in the way but they would try to keep it simple.

[@Pukovnik141]

If it gets stuck, it will unspool more wire. Limit is wire length, not strength. Optic fiber is not like window glass. It is quite flexible. It also hides operator since there is no radio waves sent and enemies can't detect the source. Tracing this thin wire back is not that easy, especially on the front line. Many drone operators were counter attacked by artillery because other side detected signal from controller.

[@joergmaass]

In Ukrainian, "h" is spoken "g" as in "game".

[@kamakaziozzie3038]

Ten kilometers of fiber cable flying over the ground. Sounds lot less than the ideal

[@freekillspider8890]

smart

[@Kagama121]

I imagine a laser sweeping an arch in the sky will illuminate part of the cable and help detect them.

[@user-McGiver]

you've got something there... a quick sweep and move though because the been will be visible too...

[@Pukovnik141]

Its easier to use radar to detect drones. Cable wontt glow.

[@philosoraptor777]

This is starting to feel like AI generated filler

[@CrazyBite2007]

still the wire can get stuck anywhere.....

[@Pukovnik141]

if it gets stuck, it will unspool more wire. Limit is wire length, not strength. Optic fiber is not ike window glass. It is quite flexible.

[@IRBry]

there’s no way ten km of fibre is cheaper or comparable to a 30$ elrs recoever which they’re probably mostly using already (ukraine is atleast blessed with tx16s)

[@repeatdefender6032]

Seems more like an act of desperation, in my opinion, but I’m no expert.

[@Pukovnik141]

It hides operator since there is no radio waves sent and enemies can't detect the source. Many drone operators were counter attacked by artillery because other side detected signal from controller.

[@agentxchannel6640]

A report on Netanyahu's plan to finish the Ben Gurion Canal Project (thru a leveled Gaza) would def benefit from your reporatge and analysis, friend. American government is already building a port there, to benefit from this potential gravy train for big government and multinational corporations ( while undercutting Egypt's Suez Canal...thanx!

[@user-McGiver]

GOOD!...

[@E3kTheCat]

Ukrainian troops are still swatting at the drones

[@Clyde_Barrows]

I could defeat this with a weed eater lol

[@edwardfletcher7790]

Weed Eater > RPG ? I don't think so.....💥

[@Clyde_Barrows]

@@edwardfletcher7790 I meant the miles of exposed filament...

[@mickytruelove]

seems bullshit to me, a fiber optic cable is roughly 8kg per km, i doube there is 10km of wire. Why is there and real at the drone end? 80kg?

[@Pukovnik141]

What optic cable are you using as reference? ATGMs already use optic cables that long and whole missiles are not that heavy.

[@mercator79]

so... follow the cable back to its origin, then boys? SLAVA UKRAINI

[@Hunter_Nebid]

Meh. Ukraine will be far better off if they just go home to Mother Russia. Seriously.

[@stijnVDA1994]

There is one thing that works against it is the fact to have a cable in the air wich wil get hung up and snap knowing it's but a tiny cable amlost like fishing wire..

[@craigsawyer6453]

Your thinking in two dimensions, my friend, who said that this thing was commanded from the ground?

[@stijnVDA1994]

@@craigsawyer6453 uh no, i'm thinking that the risc of breaking the cable on a tree would make that problem 3 dimensional..

[@clints7834]

Let's build towers along contested borders. These towers will have multiple rails systems acting as drone elevators. Lunching multiple drones at once would be no problem and the advantage of launching from up on high gives the tether more freedom from snags. Imagine an unstoppable, explosive drone swarm guarding a 20 mile radius from one tower. With automation and miniaturization, the range could expand and this could be amazing.

[@canadiangemstones7636]

Utter nonsense.

[@clints7834]

@@canadiangemstones7636 Actually the design is already being worked on by a company. The only difference is that their stack of drones can be deployed in the field and they don't use a tower. It's more likely that this idea moves to a areal platform with a mother drone that can deploy smaller striker drones on a fiber optic tether to penetrate jammed sectors. Nonsense is calling nonsense about an industry that you obviously know nothing about.

[@greeceuranusputin]

I'm willing to bet 'something' that russia can't make that fiber optic cable and it's one-time use.

[@emjizone]

Chinese fiber optic? Maybe continuous fiber optic cable is easier to produce for Russia than extra microcircuits and high-frequency optronic decoders

[@edwardfletcher7790]

Yeah, there's no way Russia is making something as high tech as 0.3mm fiber optic cable !

[@user-McGiver]

@@edwardfletcher7790 exactly!... no way!...

[@Lipi19821]

Russia has more than 8 factories that produce fiber optic cables..... they produce Thermal cameras for cheap...so cheap that they use the on 1 time use FPV drones.... So yea,Russia is not backwards like our media try to convice us....

[@canadiangemstones7636]

@@Lipi198218 factories, eh? Not 7, or 11? How very precise you are... Ivan.

[@lesgaal4017]

Looks like someone's running out of new material to put on their video channel, just like a fishing rod nothing new to show

[@johnnytwotimez]

60 billion is a good start, but we gotta come across with serious help

[@jay.a9992]

Merica

[@rayrae1651]

Sounds desperate to me

[@user-McGiver]

we say that underwater drones have limited applications because ''optic fiber'' restrains them... there's no other way to go underwater... that's nothing more than an act of desperation... a ''flying'' underwater drone...

[@Pukovnik141]

It can switch to backup wireless communication and use GPS so it is nothing like underwater warfare. [It also hides operator since there is no radio waves sent and enemies can't detect the source. Many drone operators were counter attacked by artillery because other side detected signal from controller.]

[@shaneharris3402]

Wow that doesn't look like a fake at all . More Ukrainian propaganda

[@madcow3417]

The disadvantages may be insurmountable, and Russia may have left its failure on the battlefield to get Ukraine to waste resources copying it and planning against it. Or not, no way to tell.

[@torbendinesen7121]

🥱🥱🥱🥱🥱🥱🥱🥱🥱

[@Patatopcgamer]

Another fake propaganda video