Russia's new drone looks like a snowy owl, and it has a deadly purpose - snowy owl.png ...

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/...n9R?li=BBnbcA1

Russia has developed a new combat surveillance drone disguised as a bird of
prey, in this case an owl, The Moscow Times reported Tuesday.

The drone, a Technopolis Era project resembling a snowy owl choking on a
mouthful of electronic equipment, appeared at the defense ministry's annual
military expo. The unmanned aerial vehicle is reportedly equipped with a laser
that gives it the ability to guide artillery and laser-guided bombs.

Weighing only 5 kilograms, it can be carried and launched by one person, the
developers told TASS, a Russian state-owned news agency. The company has also
developed a falcon drone. It is said to be able to fly for up to 40 minutes and
cover distances up to 20 kilometers, or 12 miles.

Creating drones that look like birds is a concept Russian unmanned aerial
systems developers have been looking closely at for a while. The
Zhukovsky-Gagarin Air Force Academy, for instance, presented a owl-shaped design
last year.

"What's interesting is that Russian designers are thinking creatively about UAV
applications," Samuel Bendett, a research analyst at the Center for Naval
Analyses, told C4ISRNET at the time, explaining, "Biomimicry allows UAVs to
operate in areas where a 'regular'-looking UAV would have been sighted and
eliminated."

"In Russia's part of Eurasia where hunting birds like owls, falcons and eagles
are very common, a UAV that looks like a bird can become an invaluable ISR
asset," he added. "It can basically 'hide' in plain sight." Up close, it is easy
to see that the drone is, in fact, a machine, but at a distance, it becomes much
harder to tell it apart from a bird in flight.

The stated purpose of the design showcased last year was to track tanks and
other vehicles and then direct fire to those positions.

Drones with biomimetic designs, while strange, are not all that new.

A few years ago, a crude drone resembling a bird and believed to be the property
of the Somali government crashed in Mogadishu. Robotic birds have been tested
in Canada to scare birds away from airports. And China has designed recon
drones that fly, move, and look like doves for domestic surveillance operations.



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"Miloch" wrote in message ...

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/...n9R?li=BBnbcA1

Russia has developed a new combat surveillance drone disguised as a bird
of prey, in this case an owl, The Moscow Times reported Tuesday.

The drone, a Technopolis Era project resembling a snowy owl choking on a
mouthful of electronic equipment, appeared at the defense ministry's
annual military expo. The unmanned aerial vehicle is reportedly equipped
with a laser that gives it the ability to guide artillery and laser-guided
bombs.

We'll see if it gives off the same IR signature...