When it comes to drone technology, specialization seems to be one of the most common approaches for development. For example, some drones are designed to go extremely fast, others to have a very long flight capacity, and still others are designed to be able to carry heavy loads.

One of the drones that were revealed by researchers at the National University of Defense Technology (HUDT), which is the top military R&D academy in China, showed that they were clearly working on specializing in tiny drones. This drone got a lot of attention, with most industry experts being very impressed at its tiny size, measuring only 1.3 cm across.

At about the size of a mosquito, it is easy to see how this type of drone could be used for spy missions, among many other things. The student researcher who presented this bot talked about it during a state media appearance:

“Miniature bionic robots like this one are especially suited to information reconnaissance and special missions on the battlefield.”

They did not say how long the flight time for these tiny drones would be. With other small-scale drones known to exist, flight time has always been a challenge because there is nowhere to put a battery of any significant size. It could be estimated that these little drones could fly for about a half hour.

In addition to the tiny drone, the Chinese state media also revealed other drones that they have developed. This includes a four-winged drone that can be controlled via a smartphone. Another new drone that HUDT came out with has the ability to be fired via a 155mm artillery shell. This makes it possible for the drone to be deployed up to six miles away in just seconds.

There is no word as to when this type of drone might be put into full production or used in any active way. They also did not comment on the development costs or how quickly any of these drones could be created, so it is unclear just how practical they would be with any type of real-world use cases.

That being said, this is a major step forward when it comes to drone technology and being able to make them so small. US developed drones like the Teledyne Black Hornet 4 is tiny, but still measured in inches, which is far bigger than the mosquito sized one revealed by the Chinese.

If you thought that was interesting, you might like to read about the mysterious “pyramids” discovered in Antarctica. What are they?