US military equipped with tiny spy drones

The US Army aims to give almost all of its ground combat units tiny drones which can spy on other forces from the sky.




https://www.zdnet.com/article/us-military-equipped-with-tiny-spy-drones/

The following is a code. May or may not be required to be revealed.


* L R C R W M S S C C M O M

Wow range and flight time are really impressive I wonder how far off reality is from what they advertise there.

wafflejock said:

Wow range and flight time are really impressive I wonder how far off reality is from what they advertise there.

Click to expand...

Based on size and weight. I would not think that is out of the realm of possibility??

"6.6-inches across and weigh less than 33 grams range of 1.24 miles at speeds of up to 13.35 mph and are able to fly for up to 25 minutes on a single charge"

But then, I am not an "ingeneere"

Hmm yah I am a software/web ingeneere but Aerodynamics engineering is a whole 'nother ball game.

I can do some of the basic physics calculations though with some googling... 265 W·h/kg is specific energy density of lithiums (on the good end of lithium cells)

Just did some calculamating and it does actually seem doable, basically need a very small craft that is mostly battery, would be a 1500mAh 1S battery and a 5000kv motor or so but I guess it does sound sort of feasible (only part that seems way off actually is the 6.6 inches across I feel like you would need a bigger prop to get the lift with the numbers I'm guessing at). A 1500mAh battery at 3.7V is basically 5.55Wh though and if the props were 14 inches across instead of 6 inches (maybe that's folded size) then could get the lift needed with that setup based on ecalc.ch for a heli. Take the 5.5Wh and divide by the given good lipo specific energy and get 21 grams so leaves a whole 12 grams for the motor FC, receiver and everything else.... hmm maybe it isn't possible I dunno maybe they plan to power it with a nuclear power source or freakin' laser beams

So, what they cost? $1.2 million each? USAF used to buy $7,000 Toilet Seats, Army $9,000 Hammers. Sounds reasonable for the military who over pays on everything. Like $50.00 for an MRE.