British soldiers stationed in Afghanistan are being given tiny drones that could make surveillance in combat even easier. The BBC reports that the UK Ministry of Defense has purchased 160 Black Hornet Nano drones, which weigh half an ounce and measure around 4 x 1 inches. The Black Hornet carries a camera and can fly for about half an hour; it's meant to let soldiers see around corners or find explosives and enemies without putting themselves in danger. It's also part of what the Ministry of Defense calls a larger push for surveillance and intelligence-gathering tools.
While the tiny Black Hornet is supposed to be able to fly even in windy or harsh conditions, miniature drones haven't always worked out well in real life. In 2011, Wired reported that US military forces often didn't see a need to use the 4-pound Raven drone — they felt limited by its short range and the fear of crashing or losing it, and surveillance methods that worked with larger Predator drones were unsuited to smaller models. The Black Hornet may overcome these challenges — a spokeswoman said they've been used in Afghanistan since 2012, possibly on a trial basis — but no matter how it performs, automated surveillance will remain a major part of modern combat.
Comments
Imagine a future soldier, with a Google Glass being streamed with information from multiple independent tiny flying drones…
By Arkitekt on 02.04.13 10:55am
Imagine a lil bit of c4 in one of those guided directly into someone’s face…. By a guy wearing Google glasses.
By Titan078 on 02.04.13 10:59am
Actually, some C4 surrounded by a bunch of BB’s would be a better choice. Picture a little flying Claymore mine. Or a swarm of them.
Of course, all of this dependence on drones just means that the bad guys will ramp up research into RF jamming technology even sooner.
By isights on 02.04.13 1:38pm
….or… The next gen of this with a lil Hypodermic needle.
By Titan078 on 02.04.13 2:31pm
Afghan defence system. Mark III.
By fakerzj on 02.04.13 2:42pm
MarkI
By Titan078 on 02.04.13 2:50pm
Imagine a future soldier that never leaves his desk stateside.
By mattkicksass on 02.04.13 11:05am
Don’t drone pilots do this already? Is it really that humane to shut down prisons in favor of just killing people without due process… Sounds like a slippery slope to me. I am terrified of war becoming a video game.
By supermankd on 02.04.13 12:05pm
You would not like “Gamer”.
By AndrewNino on 02.04.13 12:05pm
lol at least that’s just a movie
By supermankd on 02.04.13 12:07pm
for now…
By phero on 02.04.13 8:44pm
A one sided video game at that. The way the world is working now is that larger countries go to smaller countries and “restructure” them into proxies while ensuring a nice technological gap. This lowers the risk of future engagements to the point where going to war with a weaker nation has little overall risk.
By laith.khalil on 02.04.13 4:42pm
Before I got through your whole comment, I thought you were going to say “one sided” as in, China will always win.
By jonoble on 02.05.13 4:51am
China is into draining the resources of other countries (mostly African) in the most efficient ways possible.
By laith.khalil on 02.05.13 11:50am
Google Glass is likely far behind the kind of tech being cooked up by DARPA. Military technology is usually a good 10-15 years ahead of commercial technology.
By MayorBloomberg on 02.04.13 11:33am
Conceptually speaking.
By Arkitekt on 02.04.13 11:40am
That’s not always the case. Often private companies are actually on the forefront on technology.
By Razormike on 02.04.13 11:47am
Which then gets purchased by…
By Hexydes on 02.04.13 1:54pm
No, private military contractors are often on the forefront and then get their research unclassified and begin moving into the consumer space. See Siri, Dragon Naturally Speaking, eye-tracking, and many other examples.
The only private / publicly traded companies on the forefront are the big guns who can afford to do Blue Sky grade research like IBM, Google, and Microsoft.
By aaronb1138 on 02.04.13 2:21pm
And with that said, in the case of Google, their biggest projects (that we know of) are Google’s self-driving cars and Google glass. I think it’s a fair guess that the U.S. military is considerably ahead of Google in these two technologies.
By MayorBloomberg on 02.04.13 5:41pm
or all the drones flying over north america finally letting the government have full surveillance over it citizens and spying on them for the “freedom” cause.
By g0d5hand on 02.04.13 12:48pm
About to take out the target and a little ad pops up to tell him he can buy his WMD cheaper at nukethebastards.com
By Boghog on 02.04.13 2:00pm
The military already uses HUD eyewear.
By DBX00 on 02.04.13 11:02am
For well over 20 years now…
By Titan078 on 02.04.13 11:13am
Soon the Taliban will respond with.. sticky fly paper.
By Driftingashore on 02.04.13 11:15am