Can’t find and take out that airsoft sniper shooting at your team on your way to an objective? That’s one of the difficult things when you just get pinned down by a single sniper --- finding, fixing and finishing the enemy who is very well concealed with and armed with a silent long range airsoft sniper rifle.

Perhaps a small drone can help you with that.Parrot will be releasing this month their small “Mambo” drone and the best part of it is that it also can shoot pellets! That’s right, so apart from using it to spot that airsoft sniper, you can also you use it to take him/her out as well. That’s what I find to be cool about this tiny drone when I first learned about it.

At a cost of the US$199.99, the Parrot Mambo Drone is 2.2 ounce drone that comes with two accessories: the Grabber and a Cannon. The Grabber is a claw that lets you grab small objects with the drone and drop them wherever you like. The Cannon is much more interesting for airsoft players; it can carry a load of 6 pellets that can be fired up to six feet. A bit of a letdown for its capacity and range and most probably there is no room for upgrading it. But with perhaps with a little bit more of drone flying skills, you can get it up closer to an unsuspecting airsoft sniper to fire those pellets and make them count.

Since it is small and light, you can carry it with you to an airsoft game with your team and be the designated counter-sniper. Now, if you can have a good pouch for it to attach it your MOLLE vest or backpack, then you have a unique way of dealing with airsoft snipers.

The Mambo has a speed of 18mph and with its 3-axis gyro and accelerometer it can do flips and aerobatics. It has a vertical camera that lets it snap photos and for speed measurement. You can control the Mambo with the FreeFlight Mini App with your smartphone up to 65 feet with Bluetooth LE. Another neat feature is its "throw to take-off" where you toss it in the air and its engines quickly engage rather than crash to the ground. This means you can quickly deploy the Mambo for some airsoft sniper hunting. You can also a separate controller if you find using a smartphone for controls uncomfortable.

Since it is small, you can use it for room clearing. Fly it through a window and you take out the OPFOR inside with it. Especially in game sites where you are not allowed to user airsoft grenades for room clearing, this can be the next best thing to do it if the game sites will allow for its use. The biggest let down is that there is no realtime video stream from the camera to the smartphone app, which means you will have to do some guess work if your target is in sight and in range.

Still, it is something to start with until improved versions or similar drones will be produced with built-in video cameras that can stream what they see to the pilot’s smartphones. I see the future uses of such drones in airsoft apart from just using them for reconnaissance tasks into actual game changers.  The only worry is when the targets also shoot back at the drones and it might damage them.

Also to be released together with the Mambo Drone is the Parrot Swing which should make Star Wars fans happy as it will remind them with an X-wing. It can take off vertically and fly like a fixed wing mini-drone.