Bare fiber (core + cladding) is quite easy to break in compression. It’s brittle and prone to fracture under shear + pressure, just like any other piece of glass.
There’s no intention to pick these strands up after use, it’s a single use device. Once it leaves the spool it never goes back in. In the cold math of warfare a 1-way $3-5k device is worth much more than a lada filled with food and water if that delivery never makes it to the front. Moreso for an IFV, fixed artillery, AA, or drone operator.
These systems can operate as reconnaissance with reusable drones, however, the fiber spool is by design single use.
And yeah, that shit hurts when it’s imbedded under your skin. And it’s going to persist in the environment for years afterward. War is like that.
Well I have never tried to deliberately break a fiber, usually my goal is to have them work when I’m done. But the bare fibers without mantle are really thin (250 micrometer is typical, 125 for core and cladding, and 125 around that for the coating) and you have to treat them carefully. I think if you bent them tight they would break. I know splicing tools have special cutters included, but my understanding was that those are only needed to make a proper 90° cut good for splicing.
They’re surprisingly durable. Afaik you can’t break them with your bare hands, you need something to cut them with.
@nailbar @Kazumara
Bare fiber (core + cladding) is quite easy to break in compression. It’s brittle and prone to fracture under shear + pressure, just like any other piece of glass.
There’s no intention to pick these strands up after use, it’s a single use device. Once it leaves the spool it never goes back in. In the cold math of warfare a 1-way $3-5k device is worth much more than a lada filled with food and water if that delivery never makes it to the front. Moreso for an IFV, fixed artillery, AA, or drone operator.
These systems can operate as reconnaissance with reusable drones, however, the fiber spool is by design single use.
And yeah, that shit hurts when it’s imbedded under your skin. And it’s going to persist in the environment for years afterward. War is like that.
Well I have never tried to deliberately break a fiber, usually my goal is to have them work when I’m done. But the bare fibers without mantle are really thin (250 micrometer is typical, 125 for core and cladding, and 125 around that for the coating) and you have to treat them carefully. I think if you bent them tight they would break. I know splicing tools have special cutters included, but my understanding was that those are only needed to make a proper 90° cut good for splicing.