Insectoids

Late last year, I wrote a piece about the Ghost Shark, an extra-large autonomous underwater vehicle coming into service with the Royal Australian Navy. In that piece, I noted how the Ukraine war has changed warfare dramatically in the extensive use of drones, ranging from simple hobbyist sized drones dropping hand grenades or mortar rounds, to kamikaze drones of all shapes and sizes, which are fitted with a warhead and are designed to plough into vehicles, oil refineries, and other war-related manufacturing sites¹. 

However, it gets stranger. A few days ago, I saw a video from Wes O’Donnell on personal drones for infantry. These can be carried by individual infantrymen in something like a bumbag around their waist. Within this bumbag, is what looks like a toy helicopter about 26cm long, with a main rotor for lift and a tail rotor for directional stability. It weighs about 70 grams, and is fitted with a camera and an infrared sensor, and has an endurance of about 30 minutes. It gives the infantryman the ability to look ahead and, as O’Donnell notes, to look around the corner before someone walks around it. He also states that previously, in war, to find out where the enemy was, you moved toward where you think they are, and you find out where they are when they start shooting at you². That can be costly, and measured in casualties.

The latest iteration of these little drones is the Black Hornet 4. It is stated to provide “situational awareness” (i.e. what’s around the corner). It incorporates “a high-resolution Thermal Imager (TI), an Electro Optical (EO) camera with exceptional low-light capabilities”. In this most recent version, “flight performance has been augmented by new obstacle avoidance capabilities and an advanced battery”. It can operate in rain, and in wind speeds up to 45 kilometres per hour, and has a ground speed of about 10 metres per second³. 

The Black Hornet was invented by Norwegian company Prox Dynamics AS which was acquired by US company Teledyne FLIR a few years ago. It has been taken up by the US, UK, Australia, France, Germany, Norway, and of course, Ukraine. The drone’s onboard artificial intelligence and autonomous navigation enable it to conduct pre-programmed missions, follow specific routes, react to changing environmental conditions and even automatically return to its dock without constant human input⁴.

But wait, there’s more. The robotics laboratory at the National University of Defence Technology in Hunan Province, China, has developed a mosquito-sized drone. The drone measures just 1–2 centimetres in length and weighs about 0.3 grams. Its leaf-shaped wings, slender black body, and ultra-thin legs make it nearly indistinguishable from a real mosquito. The wings beat up to 500 times per second, enabling silent, erratic flight that helps it blend into natural environments and evade detection by both sight and sound. Despite this ground-breaking design, its battery life is extremely limited, payload constraints mean only basic cameras can be carried, it cannot be used outside as it is highly susceptible to wind and rain⁵.

Where this ends is anybody’s guess.

Sources

1. https://blotreport.com/2025/09/25/autonomous/
2. https://substack.com/@wesodonnell/note/p-199108148
3. https://bssholland.com/product/black-hornet-4/
4. https://www.engineering.com/the-incredible-engineering-of-the-black-hornet-nano-drone/
5. https://dronelife.com/2025/07/09/china-unveils-mosquito-sized-drone-for-stealth-surveillance/