Russian Fiber Optic Drone Can Beat Any Jammer

When Kalashnikov subsidiary ZALA boasted that their new ‘Product 55’ quadcopter was proof against all forms of radio jamming, this appeared to point to some kind of autonomy similar to what the company had previously displayed. But a captured Russian FPV attack drone uses a very different and quite surprising technology to overcome radio interference: it has no radio but communicates with the operator via a fiber-optic cable spooled out as it flies.

Inside The Mystery Egg
On March 2nd, Ukrainian military blogger Serhii “Flash” reported a strange new type of Russian FPV kamikaze drone. In addition to the usual warhead, this was carrying a hollow plastic egg containing unidentifiable equipment. Flash asked his readers whether anyone knew what this might be


A few days later, he posted the answer. Ukrainian experts had take the drone apart and established that the mystery device was a spool of fiber optic cable attached to a commercial Chinese-made optical transceiver used for high-speed communications. The markings on the spool showed it held 10,813 metres (6.7 miles) of cable.

This came as a surprise the Flash, but not a complete one.

“At the Hackathon of the Ministry of Defense, there was a participant who proposed to use this technology for UAVs [Uncrewed Air Vehicles] ,” he noted, “but my colleagues on the jury and I doubted that it was realistic. A drone that unwinds a coil of 10 kilometers of cable in the air without breaking the fiber.”