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Handheld Black Hornet Nano Drones Issued To UK Soldiers
cylonlover writes "Drones have become a valuable asset for any military force in recent years for both combat and surveillance. But while scanning a warzone from miles away is great from a tactical standpoint, unmanned aircraft can be just as useful in the hands of troops on the ground. That's why British soldiers in Afghanistan have been issued several Black Hornet Nanos, a palm-sized UAV that can scout around corners and obstacles for hidden dangers. Each UAV measures just 4 x 1 inches (10 x 2.5cm) and weighs a mere 0.6 ounces (16 grams), making it easy for troops to carry along with the rest of their gear. A built-in camera transmits live video and still images to a handheld control unit at a range of up to half a mile (800 meters)."
Relative to the cost of a soldier this seems reasonable, assuming British soldiers have a similar cost.
This just in: short production runs of 160 pieces have an expensive per-piece cost.
Tooling and R&D aren't free, buddy.
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BMO
Read the article: One of the main selling points of this tiny little helicopter is the fact that it is actually very stable even in high winds.
Remember that it was developed here in Norway where we have quite a bit of "inclement weather", i.e. it has to be able to handle both wind, dust and some rain.
Re. the excessive cost: This will obviously come down a lot, and even if the main article didn't say so, each kit contains multiple drones: The mil-spec controller is probably far more expensive to manufacture than each drone.
Terje
"almost all programming can be viewed as an exercise in caching"
First of all, its 125000 GBP, not USD, second, that's the cost for 10 years of maintenance.
Meaning, that for 10 years, they'll repair and replace those drones, which will undoubtedly get damaged pretty frequently in a combat situation.
One thing is for certain, soldiers will have plans formed in much less than the first hour after the drones are issued to them..."We need drone style, real-time visual recon of the nearest women's shower. ASAP!"
Troops will be troops, it has been so for thousands of years: Live to get laid, have the next drink, and collecting some coin.
Down With Slashdot BETA!!! I've been around the corner and seen the oliphant; you can only abuse me from your perspecti
I fly a walkera genius (it's a tiny bit bigger http://www.helipal.com/walkera-hm-genius-cp-v2-helicopter-2-4ghz-value-edition.html ) and it handles the wind exceptionally. Wind i couldn't fly an rc plane in, the little chopper barely gets disturbed. I think it's due to being such a small surface area, plus those little motors have surprising amount of power. If any one wants to try this at home you can also buy 1 gram camera and transmitter modules http://www.fpvhobby.com/143-sub-nano-combo-set.html ; it'll only run for 8 minutes or so (not like the 30 this uk military one does) but the genius is fast and it's full 3d cyclic pitch (fly it upside down if you can handle it).
Rocket Surgeon.
What, you mean one of the polystyrene upy-downy lefty-righty helicopters that are barely controllable indoors and where the blades fall off if you land slightly badly. I had one of those, it was a bit of a laugh but it was lacking the following features:
1) A copter which uses a secure (DDL) network, capable of transmitting over 800 meters
2) GPS navigation
3) High quality, stabilized, pan-tilt, and mechanically zoomed video
4) 30 minutes battery
5) Carbon-fiber propellers
6) Super-quiet operation
7) Waterproof
8) Hover and stare, preprogrammed search routes
9) Base Station
Mission Planning, Execution and Analyses
Display connections, Functions and System Controls
Storage of Mission Data including Video and Images
Connections to PC, Network and other Peripherals
UAVs housed inside for Protection and Support
List stolen from Phyvel Lavine's comment under TFA
Show me a 16g heli with 30 minute flight time, stable in high winds, camera that _transmits_ live video (think battery life again), and can follow GPS coordinates (think yet more battery life).
;) ).
Provide a link to one that's less than $1000. Otherwise you can figure out where all the millions went.
I've seen interesting civilian/toy helis: e.g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=3WBUVYZkODI
But none have specs anything as impressive as _claimed_ in the article. It does make me wonder whether the claims are all true. If it's true it's pretty impressive tech. In fact it actually is not far from some of those Sci-Fi stuff.
I've got toy helis, and without all those specs, they are toys.
8 minute flight time
requires pilot intervention in high winds.
no GPS
adding live hi-res video = even shorter flight time.
Not water proof (my guess is the drone is waterproof or it'll be a major oops