This is the Black Hornet, the small reconnaissance drone that Ukraine will receive as part of the military aid to be able to face Russia in the war

When talking about military drones, people often associate it with large aircraft similar to a fighter plane. However, there are some variants of them that not only have a different appearance, but are also significantly smaller in size.

Such is the case with the Black Hornet, a tiny drone smaller than a phone that Ukraine will soon have access to as part of a donation from the governments of Norway and Britain.

The device, created by the US company Teledyne FLIR, is designed to carry out reconnaissance and identification tasks on the battlefield without being detected. The total cost of the drones that Ukraine will receive is estimated to be about $9 million.

The most characteristic element of the Black Hornet is that due to its small size, it is considered the smallest military drone in the world. Its main use is to provide intelligence support to troops on the ground, as it is capable of facilitating the detection of enemy military forces without putting human lives at risk.

Despite its small size, the Black Hornet is a remote reconnaissance unit with extremely interesting capabilities that make it an extremely complete device. This is due to the fact that it has the ability to fly in areas prohibited by GPS, in addition to the fact that it can fly at a maximum speed of up to 13 miles per hour. To this is added that it has image processing that allows its controller to see in real time what the drone can capture.

In the same way, it has a modular structure, which allows operators to easily and quickly replace both the batteries and the sensors that the device has.

The drone’s body, made of a strong plastic alloy, is shaped like a small helicopter. The Black Hornet is equipped with three surveillance cameras which can capture images in very low visibility environments thanks to its night vision. In addition to all this, the drone has an autopilot system that allows it to be programmed to follow a predetermined route using a GPS system.

As far as its operability is concerned, the Black Hornet can be controlled by its operator at a distance of up to 0.6 miles, as long as he has a direct line of sight of the device.

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