Navy's tiny Cicada drone designed to avoid enemy detection
The Navy's tiny Cicada unmanned aerial vehicle is designed to glide undetected through hostile territory as it collects data.
The Navy is conducting tests to deliver glider-like unmanned aerial vehicles about the size of a small bird from a larger UAV that would sneak past enemy radar and outposts to blanket a hostile area with surveillance sensors, reports Katie Drummond at Wired's Danger Room blog.
In demonstrations of its Autonomous Deployment Demonstration project, a high-altitude balloon launched a mid-sized Tempest drone that in turn sent the Cicadas on their noiseless flight, the blog said. The tiny Cicadas, designed to be disposable, are outfitted with a basic navigation system and the requisite sensors needed to collect data as they slowly descend to the ground.
The Navy eventually hopes through further tests to deploy hundreds of Cicadas from a larger UAV that would scoop up large amounts of data on a hostile area.