Switchblade drone gives Navy stealth capacity for attacks

Richard Fernandez:
From Popular Science, news you can use. The Navy could have the Snowden killer:

In 2008 the Navy demonstrated something called Submarine Over-The-Horizon Organic Capability-launching and controlling a lethal Switchblade drone from a submerged sub. The Switchblade is a one-use drone, powered by a quiet electric motor, that weighs about six pounds and flies up to 50 mph for 15 minutes. … 
Switchblade can fly at a height of a few hundred feet, so it is unlikely anyone would notice or recognize a small, silent drone flying in the dark-especially in a busy place like Hong Kong. … The U.S. military and intelligence community also operate a number of other drones which have not yet been acknowledged, including some camouflaged as large birds and designed to operate covertly. These may even have far more impressive capabilities than the Switchblade.

If small power sources become available the combination of submarines and drones open a wealth of possibilities. The Navy can for example, go from microdrones to swarms of insects.

“Insects aweigh my boys, insects aweigh!” However Vijay Kumar of the University of Pennsylvania, one of the men at the forefront of quadrotor robot insects dismisses the idea that these creations will take over the world by themselves.

...
It is not clear how lethal a lightweight drone can be at this point.  Loading a light camera on them is one thing, but hanging a missile or machine gun is a heavier lift.  For now Snowden's biggest worry is whether Hong Kong and the Chicoms will respond to the papers they are receiving from the US.

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