first-person view (FPV) type quadcopter drone controlled via a fiber optic cable was among the participants in a U.S. Navy-led exercise earlier this year focused on exploring new distributed electronic warfare capabilities. Fiber optic kamikaze FPVs, which Russia first began using in Ukraine last year and have now become a fixture on both sides of that conflict, are notably immune to jamming and many other forms of electronic warfare.
The Michigan National Guard released pictures yesterday of the fiber optic FPV and other uncrewed systems that took part in Exercise Silent Swarm 25. The event itself took place back in July at the Alpena Combat Readiness Training Center (CRTC) in Alpena, Michigan. The Navy’s Naval Surface Warfare Center, Crane Division (NSWC Crane) has been holding Silent Swarm events annually at the Alpena CRTC in cooperation with the Michigan National Guard and other elements of the U.S. military since 2022.
“During the series of technology experiments, private companies, academic institutions, and military organizations used swarms of unmanned systems to ‘attack’ and ‘defend’ locations in Thunder Bay, off the coast of Alpena in Lake Huron,” according to a press release on the exercise the Michigan National Guard put out today. “As the two forces conducted their operations, all parties collected data on which technologies offered the greatest advantages.”
“The hypothesis for Silent Swarm is to identify those systems that can outmatch and have an impact in the most challenging environments,” Rob Gamberg, project lead for Silent Swarm at Naval Surface Warfare Center, Crane Division (NSWC Crane), also said in a statement. “We are learning from each other with every iteration, which is exactly what we hope to see.”
“Silent Swarm is a series of events focused on experimentation with early development Electromagnetic Spectrum Operations (EMSO) capabilities that can be employed on attritable, multi-domain Unmanned Systems (UxS),” NSWC Crane also said in call for participants in Silent Swarm 25 that it put out last year. “The Silent Swarm series provides a challenging and flexible experimentation environment to enable rapid development of emerging technology. Selected participants will be able to further develop their technologies while operating in an operationally relevant sandbox environment alongside subject matter experts (SMEs) from joint operational and technical communities.”
How many total fiber optic FPVs took part in Silent Swarm 25, and whether they were used as ‘attackers’ or ‘defenders,’ or both, is unclear. However, their inclusion in the exercise at all makes good sense. As noted, Russia first began using FPVs with this kind of control method last year, primarily in response to growing electronic warfare threats.
Fiber optic control offers additional benefits, including a more reliable, secure, and higher-speed link with lower latency (key for FPV operation) that is also immune to cyber intrusion. The hard link helps mitigate the effects of terrain that can interfere with radio control, something that is also a factor for operating drones inside buildings. Fiber optic drones also do not pump out radio frequency emissions that passive sensors can detect, making them harder to spot. The control scheme is not without its own disadvantages, including the potential for the cable to become tangled on or severed by various obstacles. The drones are also not invulnerable, including to laser and microwave directed energy weapons.
Still, Ukrainian forces followed suit in adopting fiber optic FPVs for the same general reasons. Fiber optic cables have also since emerged as a means to control small uncrewed ground vehicles.
“The idea is great, because you are operating in total radio silence, so you cannot be detected by any radar system [passive sensors]. And any electronic warfare means that later on, they are just inefficient,” the commander of the 12th Special Forces Brigade Azov of the Ukrainian National Guard’s Unmanned Systems Battalion, who uses the call sign Yas, told TWZ in an interview in May. “At the same time, the use of fiber optic cables, as with any FPV drone, has its own peculiarities of operation, and if the pilot is not skilled enough, that is going to lead to significant losses in such equipment and systems.”
“I would like to say that at the moment, Russian electronic warfare is undoubtedly one of the leading in the world,” he added. “So I do not want to underestimate the enemy. We need to accept, to acknowledge, the level of the enemy.”
The use of fiber optic FPV in Ukraine has become so commonplace that videos have begun to emerge showing dense, tangled webs of leftover cables littered on the ground.
There are also signs now that fiber optic FPVs may be starting to proliferate outside of Ukraine.
It is worth noting here that Ryan’s comment back in March reflects broader criticism of how the U.S. military had continued to lag behind in the actual fielding of new uncrewed capabilities, in general, especially to smaller units. When it comes to drones, as well as counter-drone systems, America’s armed forces have long seemed mired in endless experimentation and demonstrations. In July, the Pentagon moved to try to finally break those cycles for good with a swath of major policy changes as part of a “Unleashing U.S. Military Drone Dominance” initiative, which you can read more about here.
“Drones are the biggest battlefield innovation in a generation, accounting for most of this year’s casualties in Ukraine. Our adversaries collectively produce millions of cheap drones each year,” Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth wrote in a memo kicking off the initiative. “While global military drone production skyrocketed over the last three years, the previous administration deployed red tape. U.S. units are not outfitted with the lethal small drones the modern battlefield requires.”
“Drone technology is advancing so rapidly, our major risk is risk-avoidance,” that memo added. “The Department’s bureaucratic gloves are coming off.”
Silent Swarm separately remains an important part of broader efforts to develop and field new heavily networked electronic warfare capabilities, an area where the U.S. Navy has been making significant investments for years now. Years ago, the Navy outlined a vision for an advanced, multi-faceted, cooperative, and distributed electronic warfare ecosystem as part of an effort once referred to as Netted Emulation of Multi-Element Signature against Integrated Sensors, or NEMSIS, which TWZ was the first to report on. Drones, as well as drone-like decoys, are still seen as key elements of that overarching plan.
