{"id":459986,"date":"2025-09-29T08:43:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-29T08:43:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/459986\/"},"modified":"2025-09-29T08:43:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-29T08:43:10","slug":"russians-find-unjammable-fiber-optic-drones-in-ukrainian-sea-drones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/459986\/","title":{"rendered":"Russians Find Unjammable Fiber-Optic Drones in Ukrainian Sea Drones"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ukrainian first-person-view drones that use fiber optic cables<\/a> to circumvent jamming have been found at sea, according to Russian reports of an attack in the Krasnodar region.<\/p>\n

The drones were seen in images and a video published this weekend by Russian news channels and military bloggers, which said the uncrewed platforms were obtained after Kyiv attacked the port cities of Tuapse and Novorossiysk on Friday.<\/p>\n

Krasnodar officials said Ukrainian naval drones were involved in the raid, which Ukraine said targeted oil infrastructure on the Black Sea coast. At least two people from a major oil firm’s office were reported injured.<\/p>\n

A video of the aftermath<\/a> appears to show a disabled uncrewed surface vehicle \u2014 essentially a sea drone \u2014 moored near the shore. It’s unclear what happened to the drone, but several boxes with hinged lids can be seen attached to its hull.<\/p>\n

Ukraine has used remotely operated roofs or lids to unleash drones before, particularly when it deployed dozens of FPV platforms from trucks deep inside Russia during June’s Operation Spiderweb<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A separate photo<\/a> of one box’s interior shows a first-person-view, or FPV, quadcopter drone within. Other images showed quadcopters with attached canisters designed to hold fiber optic spools.<\/p>\n

Business Insider could not independently verify the authenticity of the footage, though the platforms they depict align with designs for Ukraine’s sea drones and fiber-optic drones.<\/p>\n

The footage represents the first publicly known instance in which Ukraine has deployed fiber-optic drones at sea, in a continued sign of how the drone war is evolving low-cost tactics<\/a> for both ground and naval combat.<\/p>\n

Motherships of fiber-optic drones<\/p>\n

The concept of deploying quadcopters by sea isn’t new. Kyiv’s forces were previously reported to have used naval drones as carriers for standard FPV drones as early as December.<\/p>\n

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Fiber-optic drones, however, are a special type of uncrewed platform mounted with a spool of extremely fine cables that can stretch for miles. The cables allow the drone to stay connected with a pilot or signal source despite the presence of electronic warfare, which jams radio frequencies that FPV drones typically rely on.<\/p>\n

While more difficult to manufacture and deploy, fiber-optic drones grew popular<\/a> after late 2024, as both Ukraine and Russia sought ways to bypass jamming devices that had flooded the battlefield.<\/p>\n

Both sides have been experimenting with mobile carriers or “motherships” for fiber-optic drones<\/a> because the cables can inhibit the platform’s range or capabilities. The further a drone is designed to fly, the longer its cable must be, adding to its weight. The extra load might cause the platform to fly slower, require a larger frame, or carry a smaller explosive payload.<\/p>\n

Ukrainian and Russian engineers have thus tried alleviating those problems by inventing uncrewed ground vehicles that can be controlled via radio signal to approach a jammed area and then release fiber-optic drones.<\/p>\n

Since fiber-optic drones are rarer, drone pilots generally reserve them for high-value targets or to attack jammers to free up airspace for standard FPV drones to follow up.<\/p>\n

The Russian reports also coincide with Ukraine continuing to develop new sea-based drones<\/a> instead of a conventional fleet. Kyiv has, over the last three years, heavily deployed uncrewed surface vessels designed to ram into enemy warships with explosives attached to their hulls.<\/p>\n

The tactic is gaining traction elsewhere in the world, with NATO, the US, and Taiwan among the parties developing and testing their own small, cheap sea drones.<\/p>\n

Russia has also been bringing fiber-optic drones to its naval operations. Earlier this month, Russian state media reported that the Black Sea Fleet was testing naval drones<\/a> guided by heavy fiber-optic cables designed to sink as their reel unwinds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ukrainian first-person-view drones that use fiber optic cables to circumvent jamming have been found at sea, according to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":459987,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7654],"tags":[2000,299,39284,154120,154125,7560,10546,154121,332,15003,154123,154126,154124,657,154122,154119,154118],"class_list":{"0":"post-459986","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ukraine","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-fiber-optic-cable","11":"tag-fine-cable","12":"tag-fpv-platform","13":"tag-image","14":"tag-kyiv","15":"tag-quadcopter-drone","16":"tag-russia","17":"tag-sea","18":"tag-sea-drone","19":"tag-several-box","20":"tag-standard-fpv-drone","21":"tag-ukraine","22":"tag-ukrainian-naval-drone","23":"tag-uncrewed-platform","24":"tag-unjammable-fiber-optic-drone"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115286704696554077","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459986","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=459986"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459986\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/459987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=459986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=459986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=459986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}