Ukraine's fiber-optic drone makers face mounting supply-chain pressure as global AI data center buildout and Russian military demand compete for limited Chinese optical fiber supplies.
Russia imported 328,000 miles of fiber-optic cable from China in August 2025, compared to Ukraine's 72 miles in the same month, according to Chinese customs data cited by The Washington Post. Russia purchased more than 37 million miles of fiber-optic cable in 2025, representing over 10 percent of global fiber production, according to Russian publications The Insider and Vedomosti. Previously, Russia never accounted for more than 1 percent of global demand.
Ukraine and Russia together produce an estimated 50,000 fiber-optic drones per month. The drones operate at ranges of dozens of miles, sometimes up to 62 miles, and cannot be jammed like radio-controlled drones.
Global optical fiber supply faces a projected shortfall of 111 million miles in 2026 due to data center expansion, according to market research firm TrendForce. The shortfall has pushed fiber prices up. Oleksiy, an R&D representative at Ukrainian drone maker BlueBird Tech, stated that fiber-optic prices increased "roughly six to 10 times" when comparing 2025 and 2026, with the most difficult period occurring around March 2026.
Ukrainian manufacturers are adapting by moving the fiber spooling process in-house. Rather than buying finished spools from Chinese suppliers, companies now purchase large spools of fiber-optic material and produce smaller drone-ready spools themselves. Oleksiy said this approach gives manufacturers control over quality. "If a fiber-optic spool has a defect, you can lose the drone, lose the mission, and lose the target." Larger Ukrainian companies have the resources for this process, though it depends on the manufacturer's size.