Autonomous drones each day have more functionalities and perform more complex tasks, and the most developed among them are those of military origin.
Military aircraft carry out complex missions that in case of failure they can cause the death of the pilot and also be very costly economically. And autonomous drones come to their aid to perform many of these tasks without risking lives and with much lower costs, which is why military drones are the most advanced.
These autonomous drones emit on-line part of the information they obtain, and another they carry in their internal memories that is obtained when they are recovered. So that recovery is important to be as fast as possible at the end of its mission, and the military are doing tests to recover the drones from a plane in flight.
The Americans have a DARPA program called Gremlins to use and recover autonomous drones from an airplane in flight, in order to be able to use them again as soon as possible in new missions.
In the photo, you can see a Hercules C-130 plane that carries several drones and is recovering one of them. The military have good experience in refueling airplanes in flight, but recovering a drone is more complicated and requires special means.
After several troublesome attempts, they have managed to recover a drone as can be seen in the following video: https://youtu.be/H4T6Vr4a1hY
And although in the video it seems easy, the reality is a little more complex than it seems, but surely in the future it will end up being a more or less routine "operation".
Autonomous drones have a huge future in military matters as they minimize the loss of lives of pilots (they are few and it costs a lot to train them) and of planes that are also scarce and cost a lot. It is not surprising that all the countries of the world invest in having these means available.
It is true that with the use of drones some countries with scarce resources can carry out actions that were previously unthinkable for them, but it is no less true that it is the most powerful countries (the so-called great powers) that really have sophisticated autonomous drones for perform different missions.
In this world of Defense, it’s known only what they are interested in having us know, but thanks to the media we have an approximate idea of the means that exist, which are not a few.
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