1srelluc
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China Unveils Military Spy Drones Disguised as Birds
China has uncovered a new military surveillance and reconnaissance drone that perfectly resembles a small bird.
www.thedefensepost.com
Newsweek~
A newly released video showed a well-known Chinese elite special operations force using a biomimetic drone disguised as a small bird during a shooting competition in the country.
The bird-like drone footage was broadcast live by the Chinese military-affiliated media on Thursday, which happened to be the date the country annually commemorates the founding of its armed forces—the People's Liberation Army, or PLA.
According to the report, the Chinese army's infantry academy organized a shooting event for the country's special operation forces assigned to the military and armed police, where they gathered together to display "special shooting events" and shoot a variety of firearms.
One of the contestants is the Chinese Marine Corps' Jiaolong Commandos. It is claimed that the unit, which is similar to the elite United States Navy SEALs, has capabilities in air, on land, at sea, and underwater, according to a Chinese state media report in 2019.
The Jiaolong, which means sea dragon in English, participated in the evacuation of Chinese and foreign nationals from Yemen during the civil war there in 2015. China said that was the first time it had used its military to evacuate foreign nationals from a war zone.
The unit, which is based in the city of Sanya on Hainan Island in the South China Sea, was made famous by Operation Red Sea, a Chinese action war film released in 2018.
In the shooting event, a Chinese frogman assigned to the Jiaolong Commandos released a bird-like drone from his hand after surfacing from the water, the footage showed. The drone, which resembled the Eurasian tree sparrow, was flapping its wings as it circled in the sky.
According to Chinese military observers, this drone is classified as a miniature biomimetic ornithopter, an aerial vehicle that flies by flapping its wings like birds and insects. Due to its realistic appearance, this type of unmanned aircraft has military application potential.
In comparison with the ordinary drones, ornithopters perform poorly in endurance, payload, and range, but they can be easily concealed due to their extremely small size. This makes them a perfect tool for special operations forces to carry out covert reconnaissance.
China has been developing the technology of the ornithopter. In March, researchers at the country's Northwestern Polytechnical University showcased an ornithopter dubbed "Little Falcon" taking flight during a recent test that claimed to have far-reaching applications.
China's state-run newspaper, Global Times, said this type of aircraft is suitable for reconnaissance, surveillance, and even precision strike missions in special operations. It would also increase the complexity of enemy attempts to effectively detect it on the battlefield.
Newsweek has contacted the Chinese defense ministry for comment by email.
Meanwhile, the bird-like drone used by the Jiaolong Commandos has attracted attention in Ukraine, where the Russian and Ukrainian armies conduct drone warfare intensively.
Ukrainian newspaper Kyiv Post said a bird-like micro-drone would be difficult to spot and classify as a threat. Similar drones equipped with infrared video cameras and radio-linked have shown their effectiveness for surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities in the war.
The development of bird-like drones can be traced back to the Cold War, when the United States and the Soviet Union tried to spy on each other with aerial intelligence collection platforms. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had invented the Aquiline in the 1960s.
According to the CIA, the Aquiline was the very first to test the concept of a drone. It was based on the study of flight characteristics of birds and envisioned as a long-range vehicle that could safely and stealthily provide a window into a hostile operational environment.
The agency claimed that the Aquiline could have capabilities like photography and support in-place agent operations. However, the bird-like drone was never in operational status.
The Newsweek link is a paywall so.....
Pretty neat and potentially very effective.....Most people out and about are nose down in their phones. They would never notice a faux bird is looking at them.
