[proaralyst]

Ukraine's drones are already partly automated because of the jamming environment: they can visually lock the drone onto a target from up to 10km away.[0][1] They're also using drones that trail a fibre optic over several kilometres to avoid jamming.[2]

[0] https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2025/03/12/... [1] https://www.csis.org/analysis/ukraines-future-vision-and-cur... [2] https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidhambling/2024/11/07/ukrain...

[lupusreal]

> already partly automated because of the jamming environment: they can visually lock the drone onto a target from up to 10km away

This capability is basically a reinvention of the walleye television bomb, which locked onto targets using edge detection on a signal from an internal television camera. 1960s technology.

[dwighttk]

Dang what does a drone carriable several kilometer fiber spool look like?

[pjc50]

The lower canister in the last of the three links, https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidhambling/2024/11/07/ukrain...

Difficult to judge scale, maybe the size of a drinks can or food can? Fiber is pretty thin.

[j245]

Previous article has pictures

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41143322

[temp0826]

I was pretty shocked to find out that wire-guided missiles were(/are?) a thing. This seems easier than that.

[red-iron-pine]

basically like a cheapo SACLOS missle, i.e. the TOW missile, which have been using that (fiber) approach for decades now.