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Forbes
24-07-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Ukraine's Upgraded Fiber Drones Are Deadlier At Longer Ranges
The REBOFF by 3DTech is an unjammable fiber optic FPV with a range of 20 kilometers/ 12 miles Less than eighteen months since the first prototypes appeared, drones controlled via fiber optic cable rather than radio have become a major weapon in Ukraine. Immune to jamming and able to go places where other drones cannot, fiber drones are almost impossible to stop. I talked to Oleksiy Zhulinskiy, CEO Ukraine's 3DTech about their work in this field, the challenges of flying fiber drones, Chinese sabotage, and the future. The Russians may have a head start in numbers, but 3DTech is ramping up production of superior designs. 'Now, our major challenge is scaling production to large volumes,' says Zhulinskiy. Steal From The Enemy, Then Improve The first Russian fiber FPVs appeared in early 2024. Many were skeptical whether fiber optic cables were strong enough for battlefield conditions. Ukrainian drone expert Serhii Flash thought fiber drones would likely be limited to very short ranges. But when they turned out to be effective weapons, the Ukrainians set about learning from their enemies. 'Field-captured enemy prototypes from summer 2024 inspired ours,' says Zhulinskiy. Spool dispnesers are now more aerodynamic and reliablew 3DTech started by replacing the heavy frames used by the Russians with lightweight carbon ones. With the additional weight of the spool, every ounce matters. Improving balance was also an issue. 'Designing a fiber‑optic drone required careful weight distribution,' says Zhulinskiy. 'We mount a spool with a certain length of fiber, but as it unspools and gets lighter, we must account for that in component placement.' Initially, like the Russians, 3DTech used commercial Chinese spools. But they found they could make better ones themselves. 'The spool has evolved: aerodynamic housing to reduce drag, fiber-unspooling channel with a polished metal tip to reduce friction and static,' says Zhulinskiy. 3DTech now have their own spool-winding machines to avoid issues with spools from foreign suppliers Making their own spools had another big advantage. Reports from the field said that some of the Chinese versions failed when the drones were launched. Worse, this may not have been accidental. 'Recently, Chinese spools often break halfway through the intended length,' says Zhulinskiy. 'Possibly, though we cannot confirm this, this is deliberate sabotage from our Chinese partners.' This concern has been echoed by other fiber drone users complaining that up to half the Chinese fiber cables snapped in flight. To avoid such problems, 3DTech now wind their own fiber spools, with a standardized design used on different drone types which can also be retrofitted to radio-control FPVs. The company has switched to lightweight 0.25mm fiber (G657A2 ) rather than the earlier .5mm. 3DTech are constantly seeking to improve fiber quality and testing new types 'Fiber thickness doesn't influence breakage. Our 0.25 mm fiber spools perform better than Chinese 0.5 mm ones,' says Zhulinskiy. 'New fiber types are emerging, offering better flexibility and less break risk. We are testing various fibers to choose the most effective. We still rely on imports for raw fiber— but we have local winding lines and spool housing manufacturing. So our spool is almost fully localized. We're working to diversify raw material suppliers to avoid dependency on any single country or supplier.' 3DTech upgraded other elements including the ground controller. The result, with better spools, aerodynamics and fiber might be described as a next-generation fiber drone. Better Flying By Fiber There are many myths about the flight limitations of fiber drones, but Zhulinskiy says that in truth pilots have had little difficulty adapting to them. 'Maneuvers like acceleration, deceleration, diving, spinning, hovering, and landing are all possible,' says Zhulinskiy. 'However, pilots must carefully plan the route to avoid crossing the unspooling path, and ensure the cable isn't severed by vehicles, infantry, or other drones.' In some ways fiber makes piloting easier. Pilots of radio controlled FPVs have to maintain altitude because dipping below the radio horizon can cause the signal to be lost. Obstacles like trees and buildings also affect radio waves, but fiber drones can maintain a perfect signal. They can travel inside buildings and down pipes and tunnels in search of targets, or even down trenches. 'Fiber optic communication lets drones operate in environments where radio signals don't penetrate—lowlands, enclosed spaces. On the battlefield, this has shown great effectiveness: we have many confirmed targets in closed spaces, bunkers, or areas with poor radio visibility like dense forests,' says Zhulinskiy. Being able to go low has another big advantage. 'Flying close to the ground allows these drones to be used for ambush-style tactics, targeting logistical lines in the near and mid rear.' There are many videos of ambush drones picking off Russian transport vehicles racing to get supplies to the front line. 'They sit in the grass and take off,' warns one Russian blogger. 'So many guys die from these waiting ones. This has never happened before.' Further And Further Most fiber drones have a spool length of 20 kilometers maximum. 3DTech aim to go further. 'Designing a drone capable of long-distance missions – twenty plus kilometers -- is a serious challenge. We found that not all media converters could transmit signals that far,' says Zhulinskiy. 'We also need higher-quality batteries. This requires optimizing spool weight and developing efficient motor/propeller systems for energy efficiency and payload lift.' Technology was not the only problem. The military bureaucracy had trouble dealing with this new weapon., 'Unfortunately, the state didn't understand how to codify them—there was no testing methodology for this kind of drone. Our efforts from autumn through winter 2025 focused on creating this methodology.' 3DTech's specialists joined with the Ministry of Defense and other agencies to help develop testing and procedures for certifying the drones as suitable for service. And now things are moving. 'We have five NATO-codified models rated for 10–20 km range, and two more up to 30 km pending codification,' says Zhulinskiy. And that is unlikely to be the last word. 40-kilometer fiber drones are feasible, though these are likely to be fixed-wing rather than quadcopter. Other improvements are in the pipeline. At present 3DTech use standard low-resolution cameras, but the higher bandwidth provided by fiber means it can carry higher resolutions. This would enable the operator to spot targets at longer ranges and see finer detail – for example netting strung up to stop drones. Ukraine's fiber drone are already more reliable, more efficient and can hit targets at longer ranges that their Russian counterparts. Zhulinskiy estimates that around 10% of Ukrainian drones are currently fiber, a figure which is rising fast. 'Our goal is to scale up production to at least 10,000 drones per month and make the products as cheap and effective as possible, giving the military abundant, efficient tools for many missions,' says Zhulinskiy. According to Digital Transformation Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, 15 Ukrainian manufacturers are making fiber drones, with another 20 companies producing components. This diversity allows new designs to flourish and spread. And a recent law cuts aims to help the business by cutting taxes on fiber drone components. Russia may have introduced the world to fiber drones. But the original developer does not always have the last word and this looks like a field where Ukraine can dominate.
Forbes
04-07-2025
- Forbes
First Known Attack By Underwater FPV Destroys Russian River Crossing
The submerged FPV, arrrowed, seconds before it detonated Following the drone war in Ukraine you get used to seeing some unusual things, from drones dropping Roman-era caltrops to burst tires to four FPVs lashed together to create a heavy lift drone. But this video of an underwater FPV destroying a Russian river crossing is definitely a first. (H/T to Tim White for spotting). Shrike Strike Submerged Shrike Special Edition In one sense this was no surprise. Back in February we reported on the Shrike Special Edition, a new version of Ukraine's Shrike FPV attack drone capable of landing in water, submerging, and then taking off again. The new drone was even demonstrated in a video released by Ukrainian drone expert Serhii Flash. At the time, it looked like the idea was for a new class of ambush drone, one that could lurk in ponds, lakes, flooded ditches, reservoirs and other watery hiding places and would be virtually impossible to spot. However, as the video shows, it has other uses too. Posted on Telegram by the Northen Eagle Battalion of the 151st Motorized Rifle Brigade, the video shows a river crossing in the Kharkiv region which has already been destroyed once. The remains of a road bridge can be seen in the water. The Russians have improvised a foot crossing over the gap with three logs the size of telegraph poles. Enhanced view of the underwater FPV used by Northern Eagles The video shows an FPV underwater nestled close to one end of the crossing. The drone blows up, with video pulling back to show that the crossing has been destroyed. (The caption says 'Underwater FPV…Destroying an enemy crossing'' and there is a link to donate to buy more drones). This might cause the Russians some inconvenience, but destroying three logs is not a major loss and the target could as easily have been attacked with a bomber drone or just a conventional FPV. Why expend a special drone to blow up some logs? Ambush Or Test Run? One possibility is that the Shrike was put in position to wait for soldiers to attempt to cross, and that hiding underwater was the best way to conceal it. Waiting in ambush uses power, and the drone's battery will have been running down. As the power bars started to dip, the operator may have chosen to detonate the drone rather risk it falling into enemy hands. (Some if not all FPVs are now rigged to explode if tampered with so letting them be captured is not always a bad idea, but nobody wants the Russians to capture a new design). There is also the possibility that this was a trial run, a test to see whether the submersible FPV could hit a bridge target in actual combat conditions. In this case the operator may have deliberately chosen a time when there were no Russian soldiers around to make the attack as straightforward as possible. One surprising feature is that the Shrike is downstream of the crossing. This is odd because the obvious way to attack a crossing like this would be to land upstream of the crossing and let the current carry it into place (like the floating bridge-busting bombs used in the Caroline Moon operation in Vietnam). It may be that the approach from that side was not possible, but the operator managed to get the drone precisely in position anyway. The video shows that submersible FPVs can destroy a target at or below water level. Knocking out three logs may not be significant, but successfully demonstrating a technology that can attack one of the toughest targets is far more important. The Kerch Bridge was damaged by explosives placed by a large underwater drone. A fleet of ... More submersible FPVs might carry out the same type of mission. In this case a single drone was used on one-way mission. But the submersible drone could have placed the explosives and then returned to get more, like the minelaying drones which are widely used. Have several Shrikes ferrying explosives to the same spot underwater and you can start talking about attacking serious targets like bridge supports which are usually challenging for air power. And flying drones may have a much better chance of bypassing defenses than robot submarines Underwater Evolution As we wrote previously, there are a lot of submersible multicopter drones out there in the consumer and academic sectors and even a few military ones. Some are designed to propel themselves underwater as well as in air. This tends to be very inefficient, but as this Chinese TJ Flying Fish shows, multicopters can submerge, and travel and maneuver underwater with high precision. Communication underwater is an issue but not an insoluble one. Small drones bring a transformational ability to rapidly deliver payloads several miles away with extreme precision. When this expands to include underwater targets, it opens up a whole new set of possibilities. This includes the intriguing possibility that FPVs could now target Russian submarines. The river crossing attack appears to be the first recorded underwater strike by an amphibious drone. Four months after being unveiled, the technology has been proven to work. Now we will see how it is used.
Forbes
08-04-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Ukraine Is Making FPV Drones Without Chinese Parts And At Lower Cost
Ukrainian Vyriy Drones now make FPV drones entirely from Ukrainian parts At a time when reducing imports and building national capacity is become ever more important, Ukraine has achieved what seemed impossible: producing drones using entirely locally made components. This gives them an unrivalled ability to develop and mass produce drones to their exact requirements. More surprising is the cost. Rather than adding a premium, by building locally the Ukrainians are actually undercutting Chinese makers. Last month, Ukrainian makers Vyriy Drone performed an official handover of the first batch of 1,000 'all-Ukrainian' FPV drones. A company spokesman said the government did not demand local production, but it has been one a long-term company goal. Vyriy Drones have been making FPVs for over two years. The spokesman noted that Vyriy make their own frames, initiation boards, flight controllers, and radio control systems, and that other components including cameras and video transmitters and cameras are sourced from Ukrainian companies. It is important to note that some of the electronic chips in that make up devices may in fact come from China or other countries. But these are simple building blocks, commodity products which can be sourced from the U.S. and Japan. They are very different to specialist end products for drones like flight controllers. Dr Oleksandra Molloy of the University of New South Wales is the author of a study for the Australian Army Research Centre on lessons learned from the war in Ukraine. This highlights the importance of sovereign drone production. 'While since the start of the war most of the components were brought from China, most of them now are produced locally,' Molloy told me. 'Ukrainian manufacturers are constantly looking for components to improve them.' China is reportedly tightening export controls on the sale of components used in drone production. Cutting China out of the supply chain removes a critical dependency. Graph from Serhii Flash showing how Ukrainian made drone components have become progressively ... More cheaper over the last two years The locally made drones cost less than those made with Chinese parts thanks to concerted efforts by local companies to produce specific components, 'Initially, there was a generally accepted opinion that China could not be beaten on price,' Ukrainian analyst Serhii Flash wrote on his Telegram channel. 'Never. But competition, time, volumes, optimization of business processes work wonders. ' Flash shares a graph showing how the prices of various locally made components including motors, frames and propellers have dropped an average of around 50% over the last two years. Frames and propellers are relatively easy to make without a major investment in production machinery. Other components are more challenging. In 2024 we reported on how Ukrainian makers Wild Hornets were making their own flight controllers on a robotic assembly line,and later set up a similar process to make their own drone batteries. Specialist companies have gone further. Thermal imagers are a particular challenge, and FPV makers have spent considerable time and effort finding Chinese suppliers who meet their requirements for cost and capability. In other countries, the defence sector makes it own high-end thermal imagers and price is not a factor. Drone makers are on a tighter budget. A $2,000 military imager is not a viable proposition for a $400 FPV, In October 2024 Ukrainian start-up Odd Systems announced that they were producing locally-made thermal imagers. These are comparable to Chinese 256x192 pixel imagers, but about 20% cheaper at $250. Odd Systems say they when they can make their Kurbas-256 in volume the unit price will drop even further. Comparison of Kurbas-256 thermal imager with Chinse commercial products Importantly the Kurbas-256 is designed for FPVs rather than general industrial use. The developers talked to users about their combat experience with commercial Chinese thermal imaging cameras and modified their design accordingly. For example, some Chinese cameras suffer from condensation forming inside them, making them unusable, so Kurbas cameras come in a sealed unit sealed to prevent condensation. 'We studied the experience and considered the wishes of FPV operators. We have created a Ukrainian product with full control of hardware and low-level software,' the company told Militaryni. For example, the operator can adjust the output of the Kurbas-256 in flight, changing contrast for a clearer image depending on conditions. Also, most thermal cameras have automatic calibration which sometimes freezes the image for several seconds. This is not an issue for most applications but disastrous on a drone, so Odd Systems' cameras do not have this 'feature'. As well as providing benefits at the micro scale of drone operation, local production is critical on the macro scale of defence procurement. '[Sovereign drone production capability] allows for a faster cycle of innovation and adaptation, via fast response to the needs of the military, and fast implementation of the required,' says Molloy. 'Local production makes it possible to control all aspects of the technological process, including improvement and adaptation to the specific military needs of the country, and reduce the risks of defective parts.' Ukrainian FPV drones lie ready for handover. Large scale production is a now a critical national ... More capability It also means not being forced to rely on, for example, China. 'Domestic production mitigates vulnerabilities associated with international supply chain disruptions and potential political constraints on foreign procurement,' says Molloy. And, as seen in Ukraine, it can mean getting more drones for less. Molloy notes that other countries are now starting to wake up to the importance of local production, many of them gaining directly from Ukraine's experience.. 'In Europe, for example, many countries are investing in establishing joint manufacturing of UAV components,' says Molloy. 'This has become possible through collaboration between manufacturers and local businesses. Many countries, including UK, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Netherlands learn lessons from Ukraine and collaborate with Ukraine, while stepping up own production of UAVs and their components. ' Countries like Australia and the U.S. are investing in drone technology, but not on the scale that many would like to see. Last year, George Matus, CEO of Teal Drones, argued that the U.S. could transform drone infrastructure for the price of one F-35. This has not happened yet, though clearly there is a renewed emphasis in reducing mports. On April 7thy Twitter/X user Naval posted that 'Any country that can't manufacture its own drones will be a vassal state' - a sentiment greeted with a bullseye emoji by Elon Musk. Ukraine is on course to produce over four million drones this year. A steadily increasing proportion of these will be made from local components. With drones already inflicting the majority of combat losses, this production will be the cornerstone in the war effort against Russia. After the war, Ukrainian drone production may become a significant export earner, as other nations without this sort of production capacity scramble to build their own drone arsenals.
