Drones nowadays come in different shapes and sizes. They can be a size of a jet fighter and able to rain hellfire missiles on unsuspecting terrorists hidden somewhere in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, or a camera drone that's the size of a day pack that takes amazing footages for a concert, extreme sport or a wedding. It can still go smaller, smaller that it can be as big as hummingbird. The beauty of such drone is that it can fly and be agile like the hummingbird too.

Almost four years ago, I wrote about the British Ministy of Defence (MOD), awarding the contract for a supply of the Black Hornet Nano UAV to Prox Dynamics. The PD-100 BLACK HORNET PRS is an incredibly small camera drone that can be used by special operations units and search and rescue units for intelligence gathering or finding survivors in the disaster-struck areas. The British Army were the first to use such Nano UAV though not much has been said of its actual use, which I shall assume for now as classified.

Just last week, Popular Science (no relation at all to Popular Airsoft), reported about the U.S. Special Forces testing the Black Hornet. It is a very handy and tiny scout for the operators on a mission as it can position itself in small areas that won't be suspected to be harboring recon drones, since it is equipped with a thermal camera to help see in the dark areas and can transmit the information to the drone operator through a console which is the size of a tablet. Even if the Black Hornet get trapped and discovered by the enemy, there is no information stored in the drone as everything has been streamed to the pilot/operator of the UAV.

The Black Hornet has a range of 0.6 miles which for a small unit using it, will have to be close by as it has a flight time of 25 minutes. I guess that will be enough range and flight time for the team to verify a target and decide if they will proceed with the mission or bug out once they see what they need to see. But for such a small system, it costs US$40,000 acquire one according to Engadget, it sounds pricey indeed. Perhaps it can justify that price with the valuable information that it can find that other drones of bigger sizes cannot.

It would be nice to have such a Nano UAV that can be used for civilian uses or for airsoft. If there's one, I would like to have a "follow me" feature where it can easily follow me in tight spaces, such as indoor CQB games provided that it has anti-collision sensors.