Fergie's Tech Blog

Pentagon Looking to Build Nano Spy Planes

Via Red Herring.

Looking for novel ways to spy on its enemies, the Pentagon wants a drone that’s smaller than the Monarch butterfly, lighter than the Goliath beetle, and faster than the Hawk moth.

To be specific, the recently announced nano-air vehicle (NAV) program calls for an unmanned plane no larger than 7.5 centimeters in any direction, a maximum weight at takeoff of 10 grams—about the heft of a ballpoint pen—and a top speed of up to 10 meters per second. The unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is expected to act like a flying sensor, taking video, for example, or sniffing the air for chemicals. Crafting a dragonfly-sized plane that meets the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s demanding specifications will be no small feat of engineering. Beginning in 1997, DARPA, the Pentagon’s extreme science division, has poured $12 million into the micro-air vehicle (MAV) program, which is supposed to result in a drone twice the size of its smaller cousin, with a range of up to 10 kilometers and a payload of up to 15 grams. No micro-drones are yet flying missions for the U.S. military. It will likely be many years before a nano-drone perches on a windowsill and records the plottings of an al-Qaeda cell.

posted by Fergie @ 12/25/2005 10:07:00 AM