Every Drone Is Beatable
But then, so is every drone countermeasure
A long stretch of razor wire, strung between an electrical motor and a spinning anchor, is one recent countermeasure against Russia’s fiber-optic drones. A video that circulated on social media back in the fall depicts the device, apparently a prototype, during testing in Ukraine.
For Ukrainian forces, the idea is simple—although not necessarily practical. They could position the wire thingy between a group of Russian drone operators and an important target such as a front-line city.
As the unjammable drones deploy, trailing their optical fibers behind them, the fibers will settle onto the ground … and get chewed up by the spinning razor wire, sending the now-uncommanded drones crashing to the ground.
It’s not clear whether the device actually works, and whether Ukrainian forces have tried deploying it in significant numbers. But that’s beside the point. What’s important is that, in today’s drone warfare, every measure has countermeasures. And as drones evolve, defenses against drones evolve, too.
