| | '''Drone [[war]]fare''' consists of the use of [[Drone|unmanned aircraft]] to destroy targets without the benefit of on-site human decision-making and discretion. | | '''Drone [[war]]fare''' consists of the use of [[Drone|unmanned aircraft]] to destroy targets without the benefit of on-site human decision-making and discretion. |
| − | The 2024 [[NATO invasion of Kursk]] initially succeeded with the help of an [[electronic warfare]] blitz that blinded [[Russia]]'s reconnaissance drones and knocked their FPVs out of the sky. Russia struck back with new drones guided by a fiber optic cable, immune to [[radio]] jamming. This was the first time such [[weapon]]s were used in combat. Wire-guided [[missile]]s like TOW or the Javelin have used copper wire to carry control signals for decades. More recently, fiber-optic cables have been used to carry [[video]] signals for the long-range version of the [[Israel]]i Spike anti-tank missile, but fiber optics have not been used previously in attack drones. And while Spike-LR costs over $200k a shot, these new Russian attack drones are about 1/100 as much.<ref>[https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidhambling/2024/08/20/russia-launches-new-drone-weapons-against-kursk-offensive/ Russia Launches New Drone Weapons Against Kursk Offensive], David Hambling, ''[[Forbes]]'', Aug 20, 2024. </ref> | + | The [[2024 NATO invasion of Kursk]] initially succeeded with the help of an [[electronic warfare]] blitz that blinded [[Russia]]'s reconnaissance drones and knocked their FPVs out of the sky. Russia struck back with new drones guided by a fiber optic cable, immune to [[radio]] jamming. This was the first time such [[weapon]]s were used in combat. Wire-guided [[missile]]s like TOW or the Javelin have used copper wire to carry control signals for decades. More recently, fiber-optic cables have been used to carry [[video]] signals for the long-range version of the [[Israel]]i Spike anti-tank missile, but fiber optics have not been used previously in attack drones. And while Spike-LR costs over $200k a shot, these new Russian attack drones are about 1/100 as much.<ref>[https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidhambling/2024/08/20/russia-launches-new-drone-weapons-against-kursk-offensive/ Russia Launches New Drone Weapons Against Kursk Offensive], David Hambling, ''[[Forbes]]'', Aug 20, 2024. </ref> |