Bionic Bugs To Fight Terrorists

dptalia writes "Israel is looking to create a small robot, no larger than a hornet to follow, film, and kill terrorists. It's just one of a series of weapons the country is considering as an alternative to conventional technologies. Other ideas floating around include gloves that would give their user 'bionic strength', and ultra-miniaturized sensors to detect explosives on suicide bombers." From the article: "The research integrates nanotechnology into Israel's security department and will find creative solutions to problems the army has been unable to address, Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres told Yedioth Ahronoth. 'The war in Lebanon proved that we need smaller weaponry. It's illogical to send a plane worth $100 million against a suicidal terrorist. So we are building futuristic weapons,' Peres said."

Comments

This is SOOO futuristic that it won't happen soon

[Salvance]

We've been hearing about this type of thing in science fiction books, then movies, and then in magazines like Popular Science for at least the past 20 years. While I think we probably have the technology to create the hornets, I seriously doubt we have the technology to have them fly very far then deliver some type of lethal force (e.g. poison) to a specific target.

Plus, it's reasonable to assume that $100's of millions would need to be invested in such a "nanohornet" for it to be feasible. Heck, the current world's smallest flying robot is massive compared to a bee, and can only fly a few minutes (yes, this link is from 2003, and the the robot is still considered the smallest working prototype of a flying robot).

In my opinion, the israelis need to invest in far better armor and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles. During their conflict with Hezbollah, the UAVs were a huge success. Also, wouldn't highly armored robotic vehicles be better than a hornet? For example, maybe an armored ball (kind of like those hamster balls) that would essentially be indestructable and roll around doing reconaiscence and shooting things. Just a thought.

Saw this once before...

[Tmack]

...a small robot, no larger than a hornet to follow, film, and kill terrorists.

Sounds like the flying robotic syringes in Dune, they silently fly around to find their target, then fly directly into them and inject some sort of fast acting poison (the spice?).

tm

Cowardly

[FathomIT]

It's very unfortunate. It will not be only for terrorists. We will soon have "terrorists" and our political and business leaders simply picked off by a small, unseen remote controlled insect carrying a poison payload.

Re:Cowardly

[chriso11]

I agree. This is extremely disruptive, and very easy to abuse. Not to sound like some utopian, but it is really sad that we use so much of our technology to develop 'better' ways to kill one another.

Israel, why must you have such wretched PR?

[schnooka_boy]

As a staunch Israeli supporter, this really frustrates me. Yes, it will reduce civilian casualties. Yes, it will be able to destroy missle launchers without having to go in and do any fighting. Yes, it will render the Hamas tactic of hiding amongst their own people useless. But no, there's no way you're going to establish trust with a people when you have killer robotic hornets flying around their homes.

Re:Israel, why must you have such wretched PR?

[schnooka_boy]

If Israel really wanted to commit genocide in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, I don't understand why they'd be wasting their time and own people performing targetting operations when they could just as easily send in bombs to take out the entire region. Israel's doing an equally bad job "squeezing out" Arabs if they're withdrawing from the Gaza Strip and southern Lebanon (may I note, that in both these cases the withdrawal was used to send missles into Israel).

So far Israel hasn't been moved by the humanitarian suffering of the Palestinians

Now this is an outright lie. Israel has been supplying the West Bank and Gaza strip with fund money to build schools (which are then used to teach anti-Israeli retorict) and help its people for decades. It also offered a whole ton MORE of fund money in negotiation agreements to create the country of Palestine. They only recently cut off this funding to the Gaza Strip since its people decided to elect Hamas into government, and allow the organization to send missles, and perform terrorism kidnappings. Is Israel supposed to continue to give its money to Gaza when it's being used, in turn, to attack Israel?

While they are still in a strong negotiating position, they should make peace with the Palestinians, Syria and Lebanon. It's another lie if you think Israel has not attempted negotiations. Do you understand how difficult it is to negotiate with organizations who will only accept terms that will severly damage Israel? "Right of return" expects Israel to give up most of its country to create Palestine. This isn't a negotiation, this is a peaceful request to collapse the country of Israel. Whomever is in power for Palestine (be it Hamas, the PLO, etc.) is never negotiating but only demanding. Those in power do not wish to coexist with Israel. Please tell me how you negotiate with this.

Over the past years, Israel has been effective at demolishing the Palestinian civil society

That's because over the past years, terrorists have refused to give up their practices. You tell Hamas to stop attacking Israel, and you see how long Israel will continue to perform any sort of military insurgency.

Great inventions!

[Roadmaster]

If only they were this creative and imaginative when sitting down to try to solve a conflict peacefully. This goes for both sides, and it applies in most conflicts.

Remember, no matter how intelligent the weapons inventors are, it's still violence; and "Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent".

Re:Side tracking on the subject of tanks.

[ILikeRed]

Can anyone think of downsides of remote controlled tanks?

1) DOS attack
2) stealing the tank remotely