Drones are a great way to make deliveries to troops, although the problem with that is that after the delivery anyone can see the drone take off, potentially alerting people to the whereabouts of the troops, which could be a bad thing.
To try and combat this the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has been developing a drone with parts that will self-destruct after it completes its delivery, and now the agency is looking to expand its research into a drone that will disappear after completing its mission.
The research is part of its newly launched ICARUS project, which is aimed at creating electronics that will disappear if they're left behind in battle. So far, the team at the Vanishing Programmable Resources (VAPR) program, which is the predecessor to ICARUS, has developed glass strips that are infused with electronics and are able to shatter into dust and small panels that disappear after they have turned from a solid to a gas.
During the research, the team found that they would theoretically be able to build larger structures that could self-combust. After they found this out, the real question was what exactly they could build. The talks about this led to the creation of ICARUS, or Inbound, Controlled, Air-Releasable, Unrecoverable Systems.
Currently DARPA is testing a drone that can carry up to 3 pounds and deliver its payload within 32 feet of a target based on coordinates programmed through GPS. After that, the drone can completely vanish.
It's important to note that DARPA isn't interested in creating a drone that "technically vanished," that is to say that it can't be detected on things like radar but still physically exists. Instead, the agency wants the drone to physically disappear.
The ICARUS research team will eventually move toward supporting Special Forces, where it would make supply runs easier and relieve troops of packing out the drones, and in disaster relief, where troops wouldn't have to try to reclaim them or leave them and add to the environmental impact of the disaster. ICARUS itself will last at least the next two years, and has around $8 million allocated to the project.
Via: Digital Trends
