Russia’s unjammable drones are now long-range, and Ukraine’s logistics are in danger

• Russia has started using fiber-optic drones with a 50-kilometer reach, a Ukrainian official said.
• The drones, which are resistant to electronic warfare, are a threat to Ukrainian logistics.
• The ambitious range appears to be farther than most known fiber-optic drone variants can travel.

Russia has begun using long-range, jam-proof drones controlled by fiber-optic cables to threaten Ukraine’s logistics, a senior government official told Business Insider.

Mykhailo Fedorov, the first deputy prime minister of Ukraine and its minister of digital transformation, said that Russia is now fielding fiber-optic drones with a range of 50 kilometers (31 miles), which appears to be the first official confirmation from Kyiv that Moscow is using these weapons in combat.

That 50-kilometer range exceeds what most known fiber-optic drones can achieve on the battlefield.

Fedorov, speaking through a translator, said in an interview this week that the development “really impacts our logistics.” He added that Ukraine is developing technology to counter fiber-optic drones and is testing these concepts with several brigades.

First-person-view (FPV) drone pilots once flew using only radio frequency links. Now, electronic warfare dominates, and signals are being jammed across the battlefield.

Fiber-optic drones use spools of long, thin cables that maintain a steady link with the pilot, making them effectively immune to electronic warfare tactics — and, thus, more dangerous in combat.

Typically, the best chance that a soldier has to intercept a fiber-optic FPV drone is by shooting it down with a shotgun. But the kill requires awareness, a quick reaction, precision, and a lot of luck.

“Fiber-optic drones have shown us that drones immune to electronic warfare are, indeed, a very considerable threat to logistics and personnel,” Fedorov said.

In some sectors of the front line, drones have become such a threat to critical supply routes that Ukrainian soldiers have covered them with netting to protect vehicles from incoming strikes.

Dangerous but ‘sluggish’

Fiber-optic drones typically have short ranges, limited by the cables that can become entangled in the environment. The range is often anywhere between 10 and 25 kilometers (roughly 6 and 15 miles), but both Russian and Ukrainian defense industries have been pushing to extend their respective reaches.

Conflict analysts at the Institute for the Study of War, a US think tank, wrote in a battlefield assessment last month that Russian developers had reportedly introduced fiber-optic FPV drones with a 50-kilometer range, although the details were unconfirmed.

Fedorov said he first heard about Russia’s 50-kilometer-range fiber-optic drone several weeks ago, with isolated cases mostly emerging out of eastern Ukraine’s embattled Donetsk region.

He said that this drone is not used often because it is relatively difficult to operate; “it’s prone to wind, it’s heavy, and then there are physical obstacles that it needs to cross.”

The spool of fiber-optic cable that the drone carries is also quite large, making it rather “sluggish,” Fedorov said. “So, although it’s not simple to do, they are doing it — including in Pokrovsk,” the war-torn city in the Donetsk region that has become the center of some of the most intense and brutal fighting of the war.

Drone experts have said that fiber-optic drones with ranges beyond 40 kilometers (25 miles) are possible, but there are definitely challenges.

Beyond the risk of environmental tangling, the weight of the spool can force developers to reduce the warhead size. And if drone makers build larger frames to support extra weight, the end result is potentially something less nimble in combat.

Russia’s deployment of longer-range fiber-optic drones underscores how the war continues to serve as a testing ground for new defense technology — specifically, drone innovation — as both sides attempt to stay one step ahead of the enemy.

Fedorov said that Ukraine is adapting to the threat of fiber-optic drones — which he said have been a “game changer” — by developing hit-to-kill interceptors, staging ambushes, and even trying to sever the cables that keep the aircraft in flight.

“We are looking for a counter-adaptation, and that will push the battlefield probably more toward autonomous drones, which we expect and anticipate to be the next stage in this war,” he said.

Autonomous drones don’t necessarily require pilots, instead relying on artificial intelligence for navigation and decision-making. In an effort to stay ahead in the ongoing arms race with Russia, Ukraine is heavily investing in the development of this technology.