Fibre-optic transmission distance and practical drone reach

Can light travel seventy kilometers through an unboosted fibre-optic cable, and would that give a drone the same operating range?

The panel accepts the transmission possibility, but cable weight, equipment, and a separate delivery aircraft change the comparison with a drone's operating range.

The answer accepts that light can travel through a long fibre while questioning what that establishes about a usable drone system. Carrying seventy kilometers of thin cable raises a separate weight and handling problem. The cost discussion also changes: one participant calls long fibre runs expensive, while another notes that civilian cable can be inexpensive and that much of the cost lies in the equipment at each end. Cable grade and reliable transmission distance qualify both positions. A later example uses a larger hexacopter to deliver a smaller quadcopter with roughly ten kilometers of fibre guidance, separating total intrusion distance from the smaller drone's tether length. The panel treats the usefulness of that arrangement as dependent on geography.