- Ukrainian companies are racing to build fiber-optic drones for the country's military to use.
- Business Insider recently visited the production line of one such company in Kyiv.
- Take a look at how these drones are made and tested to get them ready for combat.
KYIV, Ukraine — Walking into the apartment-size production facility, an unassuming hallway offering no real indication of what lies ahead suddenly gives way to a full-blown drone-making operation.
Stacks of hobby-style quadcopter drones sit alongside tables covered with tools, electronics, and random parts scattered about. A Ukrainian flag hangs on the wall.
This makeshift but sophisticated "factory" is where the Ukrainian company 3DTech produces explosive-packed drones for the country's military to help them fend off the invading Russian forces.
Ukraine's booming weapons industry is made up of countless operations just like this one. While some companies may work out of classic factories, many others work out of smaller, simpler workshops. Drone makers are building recon assets, bombers, regular quadcopters carrying bombs, fiber-optic drones, and even AI-enabled systems.
Business Insider visited 3DTech's facility this month and spoke with members of the operation, including its CEO and its chief engineer.
3DTech makes first-person view drones. These have become ubiquitous on the battlefield; both Ukraine and Russia arm them with explosives and pilot them from a distance into enemy positions or armored vehicles. Amid strains on traditional stockpiles, these uncrewed assets have emerged as supercheap but effective precision weapons.
FPV drones rely on a stable connection to their operators. The most common practice has been a radio frequency connection that allows pilots to guide the drones remotely toward targets many miles away. This method, however, is vulnerable to the extensive electronic signal-jamming tactics that Ukraine and Russia use.
Fiber-optic cables have emerged as an increasingly popular solution to this problem. Drones with this type of connection are more resistant to jamming and produce higher-quality video transmissions, which helps the pilots steer them toward their targets. Though the tether can be limiting, Kyiv and Moscow have been racing to build fiber-optic drones in recent months.
Half of the 1,200 FPV drones that 3DTech expects to make in March are fiber-optic drones, while the other half rely on radio frequency connections. The company expects its output to increase when it soon signs a formal contract with Ukraine's Ministry of Defense.
"The market of fiber-optic drones is very dynamic, and the demand will increase," Roman Aharkov, 3DTech's CEO, told BI through a translator. He believes fiber-optic drones will eventually make up a quarter of all drones in service.
Building an exploding drone
A stroll through the 3DTech facility showcases the full developmental cycle for drones like this. In one room, eight technicians sit at little stations, putting together carbon fiber frames. Some of them can make up to nine drones each day. The 3DTech staff works eight hours a day, seven days a week.
Dozens of drone frames of various sizes — 7, 8, 10, and 13 inches — are stacked on top of one another. At this stage in its development, the product isn't very heavy.
Down the hall, in another room, an army of 3D printers is turning out spools for the fiber-optic cables. The company used to rely on China for this product, but Aharkov said the Chinese coils resulted in slower drone speeds and poor maneuverability.
3DTech builds its own fiber-optic spools, but it still relies on China for parts like carbon fiber frames, motors, and cameras.
In this area of the workshop, the drones from the first assembly room are taken and given either a radio frequency or a fiber-optic connection. They are tested to ensure the quality of the video signal is solid and the motors are working properly. If everything looks good, the drones are given weight to test their connection with something mimicking a warhead.
Exploding FPV drones in Ukraine are often armed with either a munition like an anti-tank rocket-propelled-grenade warhead or plastic explosives.
Eventually, the drones are taken to a site outside Kyiv, where they are tested in realistic conditions. This helps the company ensure they are ready for the battlefield.
Across the hall from where the spools are made and connection testing happens, 3DTech staff can be seen taking the spools and assembling the coils for the fiber-optic drones.
The coils vary depending on the drone. Some of the fiber-optic drones can travel over 15 miles and carry several pounds of explosives — which can devastate troop positions or armored vehicles.
At the end of the hall, the drone frames are packed in what look like pizza boxes. The batteries and fiber-optic spools are shipped separately.
From here, the products are sent to Ukrainian soldiers on the front lines either through direct sales to military units or through charity foundations. The cost of a drone starts at just a few hundred US dollars but goes up depending on size and specifications.
3DTech's chief engineer, Ilya Ronin, asked BI to be identified by his military call sign instead of his actual last name for security reasons. He said the biggest challenge for the operation was managing the talent.
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"Technology is not so hard to learn; to train a person to work with the technology is much harder. It's always the hardest," he said via a translator.
"We have a huge problem in that the state partially fails to realize that everyone cannot be at the front," he said, explaining that "if everyone is with assault rifles, everyone will die."
He said that this is "where engineers are needed."
3DTech is one of dozens of Ukrainian companies making FPV drones. The production of these weapons has become a pillar of the country's booming defense industry; Kyiv recently announced plans to buy some 4.5 million FPV drones in 2025.