414th Regiment Madyar’s Birds to use fiber optic FPV drones
21 December, 2024 A Russian tank in the sights of a fiber optic drone of the 414th Strike Drone Regiment. Freeze frame from the video of the 414th Strike Drone Regiment The drone pilots of the 414th Separate Regiment of Strike Unmanned Aircraft Systems "Madyar's Birds" have started using FPV drones controlled by fiber optics.
This was reported by the regiment's commander Robert Brovdi "Madyar". It is reported that the drone was an original development of the Clima-Team engineering service of the 414th Regiment. The published video shows how two FPVs with fiber optic control destroy a Russian tank firing from a covered firing position.
It is noted that a classic FPV drone would not have been able to hit this tank, as it was reliably protected by electronic warfare. It is noted that the development had already been submitted for codification to the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine.
This is the main advantage of controlling drones using fiber optics, as wired communication makes drones immune to interference. It also eliminates the problem of the radio horizon, when a drone loses the signal from the remote control at a great distance because it is beyond the horizon.
A Ukrainian-made Predator REBOFF FPV drone. Photo credits: 3DTech
However, such drones also have a number of disadvantages.
The main one is that a massive coil with a 10 km cable adds an additional 2-2.5 kg of weight. This requires the use of larger and more expensive drones. The coil itself and the modified control system also add to the cost.
Similar developments
There are already numerous fiber optic drones in Ukraine, not only Ukrainian but also foreign-made.
Not only FPV drones, but also bomber drones and even ground robotic platforms.
A ground drone with an integrated fiber optic coil. Source: DRONARIUM.
However, such drones have not yet been widely used by the Ukrainian Defense Forces. At the same time, the first reports of Russian experiments with fiber-optic FPV drones date back to March 2024.
That was when the Ukrainian military first discovered a fallen drone with a fiber optic coil. As of December 2024, some Russian units were already widely using such drones to hit Ukrainian targets. They are used especially intensively in the Kursk region.
However, similar drones have already been found in eastern Ukraine in the fall of 2024.
Since such drones are not affected by electronic warfare, the only way to neutralize them is to physically destroy them.
Recently, a drone pilot of the 68th Separate Ranger Brigade successfully destroyed an enemy FPV drone with fiber optic control using his own FPV drone.
However, timely detection of such targets remains a problem.