Intelligent swarms of autonomous, decentralized robots that look like insects could soon be deployed for military information-gathering and reconnaissance.

There have been multiple reports of high-tech, insect like drones at recent political rallies that some people suspect are micro-air surveillance vehicles that have been under development by the U.S. intelligence community.

Israel is developing a robot the size of a hornet to attack terrorists. And although the prototype will not fly for three years, killer Micro Air Vehicles, or MAVs, are much closer than that.

Israel is using nanotechnology to try to create a robot no bigger than a hornet that would be able to chase, photograph and kill its targets, an Israeli newspaper reported on Friday.

The Israeli military is equipping its forces with a new range of spy drones small enough to fit in a soldier's backpack.

A spy plane with flapping wings and the size of a bee is being developed by at research team at the University of Bath. The plane could send back video footage of battlegrounds and remove the need for human scouts.

Researchers have developed unmanned surveillance aircraft modelled after birds that can blend into their surroundings and fly in flocklike formations.

Tiny machines that fly like insects will soon be a reality. That is the confident prediction of scientists who have just studied the remarkable aerobatics of the butterfly.

Biologists and technologists at the University of California, Berkeley have spent the past four years developing a tiny robot, called the Micromechanical Flying Insect, that they say will one day fly like a fly.
The Berkeley project is one of several similar projects with the same goal: churn out tiny, nimble devices that can surreptitiously spy on enemy troops, explore the surface of Mars or safely monitor dangerous chemical spills.

The military is close to fielding miniature unmanned aerial vehicles that could eventually render the combat scout as obsolete as the horse cavalry.
Pentagon engineers are working on a range of micro aircraft and backpack-sized vehicles for short-range surveillance now conducted by U.S. ground troops.