At first glance, the tiny object – barely the size of a human fingernail – looks like a toy. Made to resemble a mosquito, it has two yellow, leaf-like wings, a black vertical body and three hair-thin legs.
The apparatus in question, developed by scientists at a university in China’s central Hunan province, is far from a plaything, however: it’s a new drone with a wide range of military and civilian uses.
In a video published by China’s state media over the weekend, one of the scientists is seen holding up a model of the “mosquito-like type of robot”, which he says is “suited to information reconnaissance and special missions on the battlefield”.
Experts told The Telegraph that while the size of the drone might make it difficult to use on the battlefield, it has plenty of valuable and possibly dangerous uses for information gathering.
“If China is able to produce mosquito-sized drones, it would likely be interested in using them for various intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance tasks, especially in places that larger drones struggle to access, such as indoor areas,” said Sam Bresnick, a research fellow at Georgetown’s Centre for Security and Emerging Technology.
“These drones could be used to track individuals or listen in on conversations,” he added.
Smaller drones are much quieter and less visible to the naked eye, which could allow them to bypass detection and enter secure and restricted locations without being noticed, such as “intelligence or secure government facilities”, said Timothy Heath, a senior defence researcher and China expert at the Rand Corporation in the United States.
Many secure facilities have technology to block wireless transmissions, so even if the drone could fit through a crack in a window it may not be able to receive commands once inside.
But the use of these microdrones could also extend beyond defence purposes if they were made available to the public.
“People could use the drones to spy on their neighbours or individuals of interest. Criminals could use the drones to infiltrate a business or a citizen’s home and observe the entering of passwords,” said Mr Heath.
However, the size of the drone currently limits the amount of technology it can carry. For example, they would use very small batteries, which would have to be charged regularly.
They would also only be able to carry tiny sensors, meaning the operator would have to be located nearby.
“To spy over a long period of time, someone would need to be willing to constantly cycle out microdrones, recharge them, and redeploy them in addition to sifting through the collected data, all within range of the target person or business,” said Mr Heath.
“This is why the drone is less useful for battlefields but more useful for special mission operations or espionage missions,” he added.
The mosquito-sized drones are not the first mini – or insect-inspired – drones on the market.
For more than a decade, scientists at Harvard University have been developing a miniature drone, modelled after bees, called the RoboBee.
Similar to the new Chinese drone, the RoboBee is barely the size of a penny, with two flat wings and four razor thin legs. Certain models are able to both swim underwater and fly.
Its applications are similarly wide-reaching, including search and rescue operations, surveillance and environmental monitoring.
Also on the market are the palm-sized Black Hornet drones, used by armies around the world, including in the UK and the US.
Larger than the insect-sized drones and resembling a mini helicopter, Black Hornets are able to overcome some of the operational challenges posed by the microdrones while still remaining discrete.
Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces have used Black Hornets for reconnaissance in Kursk since Russia’s invasion in 2022.
