The U.S. Army Wants A Drone That Weighs Less Than A Slice Of Bread

The U.S. Army wants a small drone for its infantry squads.

How small? This drone will weigh under 25 grams – or less than a slice of bread. It must carry a payload under 5 grams – or less than a teaspoon of sugar.  

The Army is trying to square a circle: drones should have ideally range and endurance, which tends to lead to bigger machines that can satisfy size, weight, power and cost (SWaP-C) requirements. On the other hand, the RQ-11 Raven – a small drone used throughout the U.S. military – still weighs more than 4 pounds. The heavier the drone, the fewer a squad can carry, which is especially an issue for dismounted troops.

“In the sub-150 gram space, there are few if any options which meet all of the needs of the soldier, and carry a substantial cost,” according to the Army research solicitation. “Clearly, there is need for disruptive innovation to fold additional capabilities into a lower SWAP-C airframe.”

The Army is looking for a UAV with a flight time of 20 to 40 knots, and powerful enough to fly in sustained 15-knot winds as well as wind gusts of 20 to 30 knots. It must also be fly quietly to avoid detection, should be capable of carrying a radio (sold separately) with a range of up to 1,500 meters (0.9 miles), and must be easy to operate and relatively cheap to manufacture.

“The desired end state is a UAS providing SA/SU [situational awareness/situational understanding] to the Squad or first responder with low/no cognitive burden and user input,” the Army said.

“That is, the Soldier should not be taken out of the fight (head up, hand on weapon), and the system should be fully integrated with the rest of his kit and network. Squad-level SA could then be propagated through to higher echelons as desired. This allows the individual Squad to know what is around the next corner or over the next hill, assist with building and route clearance, and provide life-saving real-time local intelligence.”

On top of all that, the Army wants a plethora of features packed into a tiny airframe. “Desirable features include threat detection and cueing; cursor on target; GPS and GPS denied operations; ability to integrate with ATAK/Nett Warrior [Android Tactical Assault Kit] and Adaptive Squad Architecture; obstacle avoidance; and GPS-denied return to home,” said the research solicitation.

Yet the Army also realizes that this may not be technically feasible. “Many or all of these features are likely beyond scope of this effort, but the airframe shall include appropriate hardware (e.g. processors, memory) to allow feature implementation without hardware change to the UAS [unmanned aerial system.].”

Phase I of the project calls for a conceptual design, followed by a Phase II prototype that will fly.

It’s a challenging project. Insect-sized drones that weigh less than 10 grams can be bought off Amazon AMZN , and tiny cameras and radios already exist. But putting a camera and radio on a bite-sized drone, plus feature such as GPS and obstacle -avoidance sensors – all while making these little drones so affordable that an infantry squad can afford to expend them in combat – is a tall order.

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