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US soldiers have started receiving pocket-sized drones that could be a game changer for troops on the battlefield.
Soldiers with the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 82ndAirborne Division recently got their hands on FLIR Black Hornet personal reconnaissance drones, a part of the Army's Soldier Borne Sensor (SBS) Program.
These drones, which are small enough to be carried on a soldier's person, allow troops to see the field of battle more clearly without putting themselves in harms way.
The personal reconnaissance system includes two drones, one for day and one for night, as well as a base station, which connects to a handheld controller and a display.
These drones are small — only about 6 inches in length — and extremely lightweight, making it possible for soldiers to carry these tiny unmanned aerial vehicles on a utility belt.
Able to fly out to roughly one and a half miles, these little drones allow soldiers to assess the situation beyond them without abandoning their cover.
This technology, according to the Army's PEO Soldier, "mitigates future losses of life and injuries by having a drone complete dangerous work that combat soldiers would usually perform on their own," such as sending out a fire team to gather intel and conduct field reconnaissance.
One of the engineers involved in the project likened the new drones to flying binoculars that allow soldiers to see their surroundings like never before.
The 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division will take these drones with them on their upcoming deployment, which will be the first time these UAVs will be deployed at the squad level.
Soldiers trained for a week at Fort Bragg in North Carolina with the new drones, getting a feel for the possibilities provided by this technology.
"This system is something new that not a lot of Soldiers have touched or even seen before, so it's cool to test it out and push it to its limits before we take it with us on our deployment," Army Sgt. Dalton Kruse, one of the operators, said in a statement.
He further commented that most of the operators who were trained on this new system had never flown a drone before, but they were able to adapt to the technology quickly.
"It was easy to pick up and fly, very user-friendly, and I can already tell that this system will benefit my unit downrange," Kruse explained.
This is life-saving technology that helps reduce the risk soldiers face on the battlefield.
"This kind of technology will be a life-saver for us because it takes us out of harm's way while enhancing our ability to execute whatever combat mission we're on," Sgt. Ryan Subers, another operator, said in a statement.
The Army plans to eventually equip every squad with its own personal reconnaissance drone.
"It is the start of an era where every squad will have vision beyond their line of sight," Nathan Heslink, the Assistant Program Manager for SBS with PEO Soldier, explained. "This allows soldiers to detect threats earlier than ever, meaning it is more likely Soldiers won't be harmed during their missions."
