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Tech vs tech

The interesting thing about technology, when used in a war environment, is that things change very quickly.

Take Ukraine for example...

What started out as a fairly conventional war being waged with tanks, field artilery, rifles and bombs, has now changed into a conflict that has become highly reliant on emerging technologies such as drones armed with both ordinance and cameras.

Just last week the Ukrainians claimed a watershed victory when one of their waterborne drone vessels successfully shot down a Russian fighter jet using a surface to air missile.

Both sides are now making heavy use of FPV drones to attack a wide range of targets, from military installations through armoured vehicles and even footsoldiers.

However, for every piece of tech deployed in the field, the opposing forces eventually devise new tech to counter the threat -- so this becomes a game of whackamole.

Take those FPV drones for example...

Initially, these drones were built from consumer-grade components and relied on the same radio-control systems and camera links that might be found in the hands of the average hobbyist.

Using a small range of ISM (Industrial Scientific and Medical) frequencies on the 900MHz, 2.4GHz and 5.8GHz bands, this tech was cheap, readily available and fairly effective. That allowed the rapid manufacture and deployment of large numbers of these drones by both sides and, as a result, they have had huge impact on the theatre of war.

However, anything that uses radio-waves for communications can be compromised by ECM (electronic counter-measures) such as a strong radio transmitter operating on the same frequencies. Creating such an ECM is a fairly trivial job and pretty soon we saw potential targets on both sides of the war sprouting arrays of ECM antennas connected to powerful transmitters that were designed to interrupt the radio links used for control and video.

Initial attempts at avoiding these countermeasures consisted of changing the frequencies being used by modifying the "off the shelf" electronics or even creating bespoke systems.

However, even they were easily thwarted by frequency-agile jamming systems

The latest attempt to sidestep all these countermeasures is an interesting re-invention of an old technology that seems to be working remarkably well.

Back in the latter stages of WW2 and the decades that followed, wire guided missiles became a thing and some of those remained in service right up until the turn of the century.

By using wires rather than vulnerable radio-waves, these missiles could be operated reliably in very hostile environments where radio-jamming might have otherwise compromised their effectiveness.

Well a very similar tech has now emerged in the FPV drone battles taking place in Ukraine except that instead of using wires, a very thin and lightweight fibre-optic cable is used instead.

These fibre-optic drones have no radio receivers or transmitters onboard which means that not only are they immune to ECM but they are also very hard to detect due to their lack of radio emissions. By creating greater stealth and an unjammable control system, these new craft have become extremely effective on the front-line of the war.

It's quite amazing that the fibre-optic cable used is so thin and lightweight that up to 10Km of the stuff can be stored in a spool slung under the drone itself. As the drone moves, the cable is payed out behind it providing a constant, reliable connection which is immune to anything other than a physical break.

This seemingly low-tech solution has become a fantastic solution to a problem that even the most sophisticated radio-based electronics couldn't solve.

One can only but wonder at what riches and dangers the fields of Ukraine will hold once the conflict is over. There must be tonnes of rare-earth magnets from exploded FPV drones, mountains of lithium salts from blown-up batteries and soon, hundreds of thousands of kilometres of silky fibre-optic cable covering the landscape and draped from the trees.

Trump has done a deal with Ukraine for its natural resources including rare-earth metals but I suspect there'll be more laying around on the ground than burried beneath it, thanks to the scattered ordinance being used during this war.

Carpe Diem folks!

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