Because the fiber spools out of the drone and curves back towards the operator on the ground at an angle that depends on the weight of the fiber and the tension applied by the drone. Given a lightweight fiber and a low tension to avoid breaking it, then if the drone was 1km directly overhead then the closest point where the fiber reaches ground level would be several hundred meters away.
Comment on Fiber optic drone control beats any RF jammer
adespoton@lemmy.ca 3 months agoHow so? If the drone is trailing 10km of fiber, it is likely not immediately above the position where you’d see it… it’ll be a km up and traveling in the direction of its target, which the fiber will be pointing towards. And you’ll know that the operator is less than 9 km away in the other direction.
knightly@pawb.social 3 months ago
knightly@pawb.social 3 months ago
Also, won’t these cables point directly back to the ground troops?
Not necessarily. The drone can be deployed on a different vector and change course toward the target so that its fiber line would point elsewhere. The operator can also pull the fiber back in after the drone is destroyed or the line is cut.
Umbrias@beehaw.org 3 months ago
if you can see the wire that is likely laying in trees and twisting and turning. across the scale of most warfare this is far from a major opsec concern.