At a secret workshop in Ukraine’s north-east, where about 20 people assemble hundreds of FPV (first person view) drones, there is a new design. Under the frame of the familiar quadcopter is a cylinder, the size of a forearm. Coiled up inside is fibre optic cable, 10km (6 miles) or even 20km long, to create a wired kamikaze drone.
Capt Yuriy Fedorenko, the commander of a specialist drone unit, the Achilles regiment, says fibre optic drones were an experimental response to battlefield jamming and rapidly took off late last year. With no radio connection, they cannot be jammed, are difficult to detect and able to fly in ways conventional FPV drones cannot.
“If pilots are experienced, they can fly these drones very low and between the trees in a forest or tree line. If you are flying with a regular drone, the trees block the signal unless you have a re-transmitter close,” he observes. Where tree lined supply roads were thought safer, fibre optic drones have been able to get through.
Is that where the phrase “pink mist” comes from?
Yeah I probably wouldn’t stick around either.
Lol naw TOW missile just looks like a gray puff when it blows up. Not as exciting unless the thing you’re hitting is full of fuel and ammo. Then the boom is what you think it would look like (fire ball and all that).
Pink mist is for snipers. You’re so zoomed in from the scope you can actually see the splat and it looks like a pink mist. You can also achieve the same effect with large caliber weapons like a 25mm cannon. Interestingly enough, the Barrett .50 cal sniper that everyone knows is classified as a SASR, Special Application Scoped Rifle. Its not meant for people, its an “anti-material” weapon. You’re only supposed to use it to shoot out engine blocks.