American volunteer Troy Smothers, who has been working with the Ukrainian military for a long time, has developed a unique technology that makes FPV drones less vulnerable to electronic warfare (EW). According to Forbes , this development could be a significant breakthrough in the use of drones on the battlefield.
Ex-Marine Troy Smothers spent seven months developing a kit costing less than $200 that, in a few hours in the field, turns a standard radio-controlled drone into an unmanned aerial vehicle linked to an operator by a fiber-optic cable that can attack Russian positions well-protected by EW .
Smothers presented his invention to several Ukrainian manufacturers, who started serial production in October. Front-line combat testing has shown fiber-optic drones to be over 80-90% effective, far more than radio-controlled drones, which are often lost to jamming.
Smothers is still working with his Ukrainian colleagues on the latest improvements, as well as developing other original ideas for drone warfare.
