When you think about military drones, chances are your mind conjures up the image of a grey aeroplane-shaped object with a windowless cockpit. But, actually, combat drones come in all shapes and sizes — including some very futuristic ones.
Take the Honeywell RQ-16A T-Hawk, for instance. (T-Hawk is short for tarantula hawk, which is an absolutely horrifying type of insect.) This petrol-powered, remote-piloted air system was built with DARPA money and is now in use in Afghanistan, where the above photo was taken. With a top speed of 130km/h, the T-Hawk is an important reconnaissance tool that’s used for finding improvised explosive devices (IEDs).
Oh, and it totally looks like the viper probe droids from Star Wars. It’s unclear if that was DARPA’s intention. We can only hope it was.
