Ukraine keeps new Banshee drone on a leash to sidestep Russian jamming
Ukraine is fast developing a foolproof way to beat the electronic jamming of attack drones on the battlefield – its very own home-produced fibre-optic controlled hexacopter drone.
In a war dominated by drones, it may seem counter-intuitive to put one on a leash, but the Chinese have been doing just that for some time and sharing their tech with Russia.
This is why Russia has already been fielding the technology in its so-called special military operation in Ukraine.
Ukraine's answer is the E-Banshee hexacopter, with a 20km cable and a speed of 60km per hour.
It is reported to have performed well during tests, including successfully navigating through a forest for 10km.
Ukraine plans to mass-produce these for 2025 to redress the balance in the skies and stay ahead of the curve.
Having connectivity hard-wired into a drone with fibre-optic cable means electronic warfare systems can't touch it and an absence of radio control signals and video transmissions makes such drones immune to UAV detectors.
The only way to interrupt it is either a lucky strike that cuts the hard-to-see fibre-optic cable, or by shooting it down – not so easy if it's virtually undetectable.
Factories in China are producing spools of cable, reportedly being exported to Russian FPV drone factories, and Russian drones are also now being operated by cables as long as 20km.
Related topics
Join Our Newsletter
