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The US Army is Building Drones That Never Need To Land (technologyreview.com)
It's using lasers to power the aerial machines. An anonymous reader writes: According to New Scientist [paywalled], the US Army is firing lasers at photovoltaic cells on drones to deliver power from a distance. Eventually they hope to power the devices from 500 meters away. How it works: The method is similar to the way University of Washington researchers are powering their mini insect robots. The process creates a lot of heat, which could risk melting the drone. And lasers come with additional risks.
Though I also wonder, what for, with this limited range.
Static defense would be an obvious application. You have drones hover and circle your base 500 meters out to watch for approaching infiltrators.
Another would be convoy defense. You mount the LPU (laser power unit) on the top of a vehicle and have drones to your front and flanks to watch for ambushes, or soil disturbance that could be mines.
They could provide low cost over-the-horizon views to armor, allowing tanks to avoid bounding overwatch, and move much faster. In defense, tanks could remain in full defilade while the crews watch the video feed from the drone rather than exposing their cupolas.