Israel Made a Kamikaze Quadcopter from Hell

<p><strong>Israel Aerospace Industries has taken the quadcopter to its logical conclusion: They built&nbsp;a man-hunting&nbsp;flying suicide drone. The ROTEM-L unmanned aerial vehicle is designed to hunt down targets in urban environments and execute a suicide attack, blowing them up with hand grenades.</strong></p> <p>ROTEM-L weighs 9 pounds, carries&nbsp;infrared cameras, and has&nbsp;a flying time of 30 minutes. An operator uses a tablet to guide the drone. He or she uses the forward-fixed camera to search for targets&mdash;IAI says the drone is virtually silent at ranges of 200 meters. Once a target is located, the operator can activate the attack mode.&nbsp;ROTEM-L executes a high speed on attack its prey. Once in range, the drone detonates two onboard fragmentation grenades, destroying itself and the target.&nbsp;</p> <p>The drone doesn&#39;t&nbsp;<em>have</em>&nbsp;to be a suicide bomber.&nbsp;If it fails to find a target, the drone can land safely to be reused later. Alternately, the&nbsp;grenades can be swapped out for a payload of more sensors, which ensures a&nbsp;longer flying time.&nbsp;</p> <p>A kamikaze drone that&nbsp;can be carried into battle by a single solder&nbsp;has some interesting implications. A flying suicide drone may be more effective than traditional infantry support weapons such as mortars and light artillery, though we won&#39;t know until they&#39;re actually tested out in battle.&nbsp;A promotional video for ROTEM-L is below. You&#39;ll never look at a flying quadcopter the same way.</p>