HIGHCAT intends to test the HCX unmanned aerial vehicle system (UAS) with a fiber-optic cable data transmission system, which is invulnerable to hostile electronic warfare systems.

This was reported by Forbes contributor David Hambling.

Representatives of the German company will travel to Ukraine in August to test their HCX reconnaissance drones capability in countering electronic warfare systems and, most likely, Russian EWs.

“Should the units want to test it on the frontline, this is possible,” says company co-founder Jan Hartmann.

The main feature of the HCX drone is its data transmission system, which uses fiber-optic cable instead of traditional radio transmitters. This provides the drone with a closed communication channel that is completely immune to radio interference.

“The technology was designed with the frontlines in mind, in particular, the current developments in Ukraine. We wanted to create a COTS [Commercial Off The Shelf] system that wasn’t jammable by enemy combatants,” says Hartmann.

During the flight, the cable is unwound from a special reel. Each reel contains 10 km of cable and weighs about 1.3 kg, while a reel twice as long weighs 2.2 kg. When in use, the cable is not stretched but rather thrown to the ground, which eliminates the possibility of tangling.

“The fiber is pretty strong – flying over trees and water is no problem. Flying in circles is also fine, and the drone can even fly backwards,” says Hartmann.

The drone itself is capable of lifting payloads weighing up to 5 kilograms, so this load is not excessive for it. Its payload is enough to carry a camera with 10x optical zoom and a thermal imager.

In addition to being immune to interference and the radio horizon effect, another advantage of the HCX communication system is its data transfer rate of up to 1000 megabits per second, which allows for clear, high-quality images to be transmitted throughout the flight.

Hartmann noted that this technology is extremely promising in the face of increasingly intense “cyber warfare.” However, it requires the development of new approaches.

“The fiber must not be too easy to unwind, otherwise it will pull itself out due to the downwash of the propeller,” says Hartmann. “Furthermore, the glass fiber must not twist during unwinding, otherwise it will break. The Fly-By-Fiber technology uses specially wound and coated glass fiber spools, which are installed in a special winding technique.”

HIGHCAT schedules to prepare the HCX for mass production in November, with plans to produce around 3,000 units per month in partnership with another German company—ODM GmbH.