A microdrone during a demo flight at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. Chang W. Lee/The New York TimesWar Evolves With Drones, Some Tiny As Bugs -- New York Times
WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio — Two miles from the cow pasture where the Wright Brothers learned to fly the first airplanes, military researchers are at work on another revolution in the air: shrinking unmanned drones, the kind that fire missiles into Pakistan and spy on insurgents in Afghanistan, to the size of insects and birds.
The base’s indoor flight lab is called the “microaviary,” and for good reason. The drones in development here are designed to replicate the flight mechanics of moths, hawks and other inhabitants of the natural world. “We’re looking at how you hide in plain sight,” said Greg Parker, an aerospace engineer, as he held up a prototype of a mechanical hawk that in the future might carry out espionage or kill.
Read more ....
My Comment: The future is small, and I expect the miniaturization of UAVs to continue at a quicker pace to accommodate the needs on the battlefield, and as a cost savings measure since they are cheaper to use than larger drones and/or risking soldiers in hostile environments.