British troops issued palm-sized drones

KABUL have been issued with Black Hornet miniature surveillance helicopters which could fit at palm, the military said on Monday.

The 10-centimeter-long helicopters, Scandinavian-designed Black Hornet Nano, weighed as little as 16 grams, with a small camera that relays still images and video to a remote terminal.

The military quoted Sgt. Christopher Petherbridge, as saying troops would use the drone “to look for insurgent firing places and check out open areas of the ground before crossing.”

On Sunday the Black Hornet was developed by Norway’s Prox Dynamics as part of a 20 million pound ($30 million) contract for 160 units with southern England’s Marlborough Communications Ltd.

“The helicopter is very fast and has very low sound to avoid attention of the people for hitting the target,” said Petherbridge, who added the helicopter could be controlled by a remote look-like cell phone and that it had the capability to fly for 30 minutes and send videos and pictures to its central commanding from the air.

ml/ma

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