Pic of the drum that holds the spool. It literally just unspools km after km of hair thin optical fiber as it flies around. The added weight does limit range.

Unclear on the specific specs of the drones Hezbollah uses, but the distance seems to be in the ballpark of 3-20 miles.

The Electronic Intifada reported that the drones are built from components stripped from other common commodities^[https://invidious.nerdvpn.de/watch?v=hY25JlG7EY8&t=938], meaning the drone supply chain cannot be targeted by sanctions while also allowing the drones to be customized to the mission. They also report that the fibre optics enable zero-latency communication between the drones and their operators, and in addition the drones can operate low to the ground^[so low to be in the grass https://invidious.nerdvpn.de/watch?v=504BsSnX5Uc&t=1314] and in hilly/city terrain that might otherwise naturally block radio frequencies^[https://invidious.nerdvpn.de/504BsSnX5Uc?t=2042]

EDIT: Deeper dive into the supply chain and construction of the drones^[https://invidious.nerdvpn.de/watch?v=w42XSiXMCEE&t=3345]

The slickest basketball name still up for grabs

I'm sure there's fanart of that somewhere on the internet.

I thought this, too. But the wires are so thin it's harder than finding a needle in a haystack lol.

They could also just pull the wire back when the job is done, hook up a spool to an electric drill, and watch that thing fly back

in addition to the other options i would just not sit in the same place i launched a midrange drone attack from.

Sure, but as you noted you just move where you launch from. These can be launched in numbers from the back of a truck, miles away. In these conflicts with a small front, that miles away is "miles inside enemy territory". And since it was launched from the back of a truck, even if you could somehow trace the wire miles inside enemy territory, by the time you do that said truck is long gone. You could bomb the position but...now you're just bombing an empty field that tomorrow more trucks could just roll around the craters and launch more drones. And now it's launching new drones at your position from again a different field.

It's honestly amazing how simple and effective this technology is. I don't even know how you counter it. Maybe smaller drones that automatically target behind these drones to try to cut the wires? Sounds expensive

The vehicle you might use to trace the cable back just got blown up.