How new drones are sneaking past jammers on Ukraine’s front lines
A low-tech fix is delivering high-impact results
Drones have transformed the war in Ukraine. Commanders sit in bunkers scanning banks of screens, as surveillance drones hunt for targets on the ground. Once they are spotted, artillery or mortars may blast them. Or bomb-dropping or kamikaze drones zoom in for the kill. The problem is that well over half the drones in the air are downed by jamming and accidents. But a new addition to the arsenal of both sides is proving more effective. They are fibre-optic drones. With no radio signal to detect or jam, they are proving much harder to stop.
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This article appeared in the Europe section of the print edition under the headline “The tethered threat”
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From the May 10th 2025 edition
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