The U.S. Army has finally decided to equip its soldiers with small drones by 2018 according to Army Times. In a Request For Information released on FOB.gov, the U.S. Army wants to have the drone small and light enough (less than a pound) that it is not much an added burden to the already heavy load that soldiers carry when doing their missions.

Calling it the Soldier Borne Sensors (SBS), the drone should be easily deployable, cost effective, and can be readily be acquired by the military when needed.

The British military are already using the Black Hornet Nano-UAV by ProxDynamics  but it is an expensive system and individually handmade. There are many affordable RC toys in the civilian market that are small as the Black Hornet, and it is a matter of building something similar to these toys with better capabilities such as faster charging, light enough at 150 grams, and of course can be controlled  to a range 1,200 metres. The camera should be very capable and can also go to heights of up to 50 to 70 feet with a flight time of at least 15 minutes.

The use of nano-drones at the squad level is important as bigger UAVs can only cover what they see from the air. The nano-drones can enter buildings or go around at almost ground level to give real time intelligence to the squad --- entering buildings that need to be cleared, spotting IEDs or scouting ahead to see if there is an enemy waiting in ambush.

Commercial drone companies can join in the development of this project, which means companies such as Parrot can potentially supply the U.S. Army with the nano-UAV. The SBS project will be coordinated by Product Manager Soldier Maneuver Sensors (PM SMS).  The U.S. Army intends to buy in small quantities in the next two years to test them with bigger purchases to be made in 2018.