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Inside Ukraine's race to crank out unjammable, fiber-optic drones that can break through Russia's electronic warfare

Ukraine is ramping up fiber-optic drone production to counter Russian electronic warfare.

"There is a strong demand for this from the Ukrainian military, addressing a real need on the front lines where electronic warfare tools are increasingly disrupting drone operators' activities." Vlad of Krab Technologies said that a common strategy in Ukraine is to use the more expensive fiber-optic drones to target the jammers first, then send in the regular loitering munitions to do the rest of the work. After observing Moscow's forces using fiber-optic drones this past Spring, Smothers, the US Marine veteran, and several friends reverse-engineered their own spool from photos of a downed Russian model discovered by Ukrainians in March 2024.

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