I did a little calculation. Assuming 12 miles is typical spool length for one of these drone, as suggested in the article, it means about 30,000 drones a month, or about 360,000 drone a year, extrapolating from the most recent figures.
This is still less than what Ukraine claims to have produced or acquired in term of FPV drones in a year, but these fiber-guided ones are all un-jammable, and can only be stopped by shooting them down, or in rare occasions by cutting the fiber. Also, the combat footage subs here have been inundated with Russian hits of such drones on Ukrainian forces lately, so the increase in production on the Russian side seems to translate into actual kills.
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I did a little calculation. Assuming 12 miles is typical spool length for one of these drone, as suggested in the article, it means about 30,000 drones a month, or about 360,000 drone a year, extrapolating from the most recent figures.
This is still less than what Ukraine claims to have produced or acquired in term of FPV drones in a year, but these fiber-guided ones are all un-jammable, and can only be stopped by shooting them down, or in rare occasions by cutting the fiber. Also, the combat footage subs here have been inundated with Russian hits of such drones on Ukrainian forces lately, so the increase in production on the Russian side seems to translate into actual kills.