IN Brief:
- ATGBICS has developed a bidirectional fibre communication approach for defence drone applications.
- The design uses custom 1×9 BiDi through-hole transceivers to support secure, long-distance communication under wireless disruption.
- The case reflects growing demand for resilient links in unmanned systems operating in contested electromagnetic environments.
ATGBICS has developed a bidirectional fibre communication solution for defence drone applications, using custom 1×9 BiDi through-hole transceivers to support secure, long-distance communication where wireless links are vulnerable to disruption.
The system was developed for a defence-focused drone manufacturer seeking a more reliable communications path for UAV operations affected by interference. The resulting fly-by-fibre architecture replaces or supplements RF-dependent control and data links with an optical connection designed for durability, vibration resistance, and secure bidirectional communication.
Wireless links remain central to most unmanned systems, but the operating environment has changed sharply. Jamming, spoofing, spectrum congestion, electronic warfare activity, and deliberate signal interference can degrade or deny radio-frequency control links, particularly in defence, border security, maritime surveillance, and critical infrastructure applications.
A tethered fibre approach avoids many of those RF vulnerabilities, while introducing separate engineering trade-offs around cable handling, range, payload, and mission profile. For applications where persistent operation, secure control, or operation in a heavily contested spectrum environment outweighs unrestricted manoeuvrability, fibre can provide a more predictable communications path.
ATGBICS’ use of custom 1×9 BiDi through-hole transceivers points to a design route that favours mechanical robustness and integration over generic communications hardware. Through-hole packaging can provide advantages in vibration-prone systems, while bidirectional optical transmission allows communication over a single fibre path, reducing cabling complexity compared with separate transmit and receive fibres.
Communications resilience is becoming a defining feature of unmanned platform design. Doodle Labs’ work on resilient autonomous links addresses the same pressure from the RF networking side, with autonomous defence systems increasingly expected to maintain data paths under interference rather than simply fail gracefully.
For small UAVs and ground robotics, communications architecture affects almost every part of the platform. Power budget, payload mass, antenna or cable placement, electromagnetic compatibility, processor loading, encryption, operator workflow, and recovery behaviour all depend on how control and telemetry links are implemented.
Fibre also changes the security assumptions around interception and emissions. Optical links are not immune to physical damage or handling constraints, but they reduce radio emissions and avoid dependence on clean spectrum. In electronic-warfare conditions, that reduction can be valuable even when a tethered model limits range or manoeuvrability.
The ATGBICS case forms part of a wider hardening of drone electronics. Unmanned systems are being asked to carry better sensors, process more data locally, operate under stronger interference, and survive longer in environments that were once considered exceptional. That is pushing designers away from simple wireless-control assumptions and toward layered communications architectures, where RF, fibre, autonomy, and fallback behaviour are considered together from the start.
