The latest fibre optic drones have started to fall in price due to increased production volumes
The cost of fibre-optic drones has dropped significantly due to large-scale production and may fall even further for Ukrainian companies. This is reported by Ekonomichna Pravda with reference to Ukrainian manufacturers.
Here's What We Know
Chinese manufacturers remain the main supplier of fibre-optic cable for drones, in particular for Ukrainian and Russian FPV copters. Two years ago, a reel of fibre optic cable cost up to $2,500, but now its price has dropped to $500 due to increased production capacity.
"Now the situation has changed dramatically: conventional FPV drones are increasingly being jammed with REBs, and the price of fibre reels has dropped to $500 per piece because Chinese factories have received a large-scale order from Russia and overclocked their capacities," said Vladyslav Oleksienko, co-founder of Smart Electronics Group.
In Ukraine, the cheapest fibre-optic drones used to cost UAH 60-80 thousand, and now they cost about UAH 30 thousand. The price may drop even further if companies start producing components on their own.
Optical fibre reels of different sizes. Illustration: from open sources
"We will make the components ourselves. We have calculated that after scaling up production, our serial fibre-optic drone will be only UAH 3-6 thousand more expensive than a conventional radio-controlled drone. The technology for winding fibre optics and assembling communication boards is not the easiest, but engineers with experience can easily master it. You need 25 people and 20 winding machines to produce 5,000 spools per month. The cost of one reel comes out to about $150," said Oleksiy Babenko, director of Vyriy drone.
Ukrainian factories already have the capability to wind finished fibre optics, which is important for ensuring the reliability of drones in flight.
The Brave1 technology cluster has created a catalogue of fibre optic drone manufacturers, which indicates the country of origin of the coils and the place where they are spooled. As of now, 14 out of 19 offers use partially or exclusively Ukrainian products.
Source: "Ekonomichna Pravda
