TechNewsDaily: Airborne Robotic Mites Patrol War Zones
June 16, 2010
When launched into the air, it looks like a kid's radio-controlled model airplane. Looks are deceiving. The RQ-11B Raven is launched by a soldier, not a kid. And it's not a toy.
The Raven, a three-foot long, four-pound unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) with a four-foot wingspan, is doing yeoman service for coalition warfighters in Iraq and Afghanistan, conducting reconnaissance, surveillance, target identification and battle damage assessment missions.
"People's lives have been saved because of them," said Steven Gitlin, VP of marketing strategy and communications for AeroVironment, the plane's manufacturer. "They've been able to see the threats before the threats see them."
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