• Health
  • Science
  • U.S.
  • Technology
  • Business
  • World
  • Politics
  • Entertainment
  • Sports

Building a Better World

News and information

  • Home
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact Us
  • Our Team

Pentagon developing laser bat drones

January 6, 2018 By Dan Taylor

Pentagon developing laser bat drones

The Pentagon is working on ambitious project that would involve creating drones that can fly like bats and are powered by lasers.

The U.S. Department of Defense has just announced a new competition for science grants to build a drone capable of autonomous flight, which sounds fairly ho-hum until you dig deeper into the Broad Agency Announcement. Basically, they want to builld a fleet of bat-like drones that could be powered by lasers, an ambitious technological effort to be sure.

It’s all part of a broader effort by the Pentagon to shift away from static, helicopter drones and toward more dynamic unmanned aerial vehicles that are more nimble and can mimic the movement of flying animals and insects. The announcement notes that advancements in our understanding of the biology of such flying creatures has yielded some great insights into complex flight mechanics, which they are hoping to turn into big improvements in unmanned aerial systems.

The Pentagon believes that combining a more naturalistic design with finely tuned sensors could give the military a huge advantage over the enemy in the field. And that’s where the lasers come in, as running flexible-wing drones is a lot tougher than spinning a propeller, so keeping it powered by constantly feeding it energy from a laser could be a way around this hurdle.

“The Department of Defense (DoD) announced an award competition for the Defense Enterprise Science Initiative (DESI), a new pilot program that supports university-industry collaboration on use-inspired basic research,” the statement reads. “DESI is sponsored by the Basic Research Office, Office of Assistant Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering and executed in collaboration with the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, the Air Force Research Laboratory, and the Army Research Office.”

Sharing

Facebooktwittergoogle_plusredditpinterestlinkedintumblrmail

Filed Under: Front Page, Science, Top Story

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Follow Us

Facebookrss

Search:

Recent Posts

  • NASA’s InSight spacecraft makes important course correction May 26, 2018
  • Scientists outraged at latest Trump decision May 15, 2018
  • Huge uproar erupts over major incident at Utah park May 13, 2018
  • Incredible moon discovery stuns scientists May 12, 2018
  • Authorities shocked by discovery about common painkiller May 6, 2018
  • Outrageous crocodile experiment stuns scientists May 5, 2018
  • Great Barrier Reef is too quiet, scientists say May 1, 2018
  • Massive Hiroshima bomb discovery shocks scientists May 1, 2018
  • Earth will be slammed by massive asteroid April 29, 2018
  • Teens are doing something incredibly alarming in schools April 29, 2018
  • Huge discovery in Tasmania stuns scientists April 28, 2018
  • Shocking discovery in New Jersey stuns authorities April 22, 2018
  • Huge volcanic explosion could wipe out the United States April 21, 2018
  • Huge controversy erupts over world’s hottest pepper April 15, 2018
  • SpaceX is about to do something astonishing April 15, 2018

Copyright © 2022 Jones Kilmartin Group, LLC · Metro Pro Theme On Genesis Framework · WordPress