Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels have deployed fiber-optic first-person view (FPV) drones in combat for the first time, according to an analysis by the U.S. think tank Institute for the Study of War (ISW) on the 13th (local time).

Based on posts and videos shared on social media platform X by two Yemen experts, the ISW reported that Yemeni government forces captured a Houthi fiber-optic FPV drone in Marib Governorate, central Yemen, on the 11th.

The experts estimated that the fiber optic attached to the drone is a commercial product sold on the Chinese e-commerce platform Alibaba.

On Alibaba, a single 10-kilometer spool of fiber optic is sold for about 800,000 won.

Given that no explosives were attached to the drone, it appears to have been used for reconnaissance.

Based on this, the ISW explained that fiber-optic FPV drones are spreading rapidly among the Iran-led Axis of Resistance.

Lebanon's Hezbollah and Iran-backed militias in Iraq have been frequently using these drones since March of this year.

Fiber-optic FPV drones are a type of tethered drone with a limited flight range of about 10 kilometers. However, they have the advantage of bypassing radio jamming used to neutralize wireless drones and emitting no radio frequencies, thus avoiding detection by enemy surveillance equipment.

Because they communicate via cables, they allow operators to pilot while viewing clear, high-definition footage in real time, increasing accuracy, which has made them a prominent type of equipment in recent battlefields.

(Photo: Getty Images)