Pentagon’s New “Suburb Warrior” UAVs Promise To Try To Kill Slightly Fewer Civilians

The Pentagon’s current crop of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are insanely powerful—the “Hellfire” is so named for a reason—but also fairly imprecise, often killing innocent, nearby civilians. The DoD’s new UAVs hope to cut down on such casualties.

In a recent briefing, the Department of defence laid out its new plans: Smaller and far more precise UAVs with badass names like “Suburb Warrior” and “Sniper” that will hunt in groups, rather than just blowing suspected hideouts to pieces with Hellfire missiles. The Suburb Warrior, for example, is designed to fire volleys of mini-missiles in tight formation, which makes a nice change from previous missiles that often demolished entire city blocks.

Unfortunately, these new UAVs should see production in about five years, by which time who knows what kind of battles we’ll need to fight—or who’ll be leading the Pentagon. But it’s a step in the right direction, that’s for sure. [Esquire]