Israel is developing mini-drone no larger than credit card

Israel is developing mini-drone no larger than credit card
media Thursday, 20-Feb-2003 4:00AM
Story from AFP Copyright 2003 by Agence France-Presse (via ClariNet)

JERUSALEM, Feb 20 (AFP) - Israel Aircrafts Industries (IAI) is developing a miniature 100-gram airplane, the size of a credit card, to gather intelligence, the Israeli daily Haaretz reported Thursday.

The drone will carry tiny cameras and communication equipment which will allow it to relay information in real time from the battlefield to army headquarters, the paper said.

The plane's very small size makes it almost undetectable as it cannot be picked up by radars or spotted in the air by the naked eye.

It can be hand thrown and test flights revealed it can fly for 20-minute periods.

The paper said the nano-aircraft can enter a room by a window to relay pictures of hidden enemies.

It also said the United States could make use of such a spy plane during its impending strike against Iraq, although the mini-plane is still in its early development stages.

IAI has long specialized in manufacturing battlefield drones which it sells to France, Turkey and South Korea, among other countries.

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