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Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduate students Tuna Tuksoz (l.) and Mark Cutler in the school’s Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics fly a simulator of a small quadrotor that has military applications. Melanie Stetson Freeman/Staff
Derek Snyder, student and major in the US Marines, works on a prototype quadrotor unmanned aerial vehicle with a small camera attached to the barrel of a paint gun at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, Calif. Tony Avelar/The Christian Science Monitor
One of Predator’s offspring, an MQ-9 Reaper, taxied fully armed at an air base in Afghanistan in late 2007, shortly after it was introduced in that theater. High-tech-laden unmanned aerial vehicles have been instrumental in the Afghan conflict, monitoring and killing several known terrorists. U.S. Air Force/AP/File
The drones carry powerful cameras and other sensors. Newscom/File
US Air Force officers at Creech Air Force Base in Indian Springs, Nev., fly an unmanned Predator aircraft over Kandahar, Afghanistan. Tony Avelar/The Christian Science Monitor/File
A US soldier prepares a small drone in Afghanistan’s Arghandab Valley. This one, which can be carried into the field, is used for transmitting real-time images. AFP/Newscom /File
A model of an insect-size US Air Force drone is held by a member of the Micro Air Vehicles team of the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio. Their goal is to make drones so small that they resemble small birds and insects – some will have wings that flap – and so sophisticated that they can operate in complex urban environments. Skip Peterson/Reuters
A US Navy ordnance-disposal team prepares a robot to investigate a possible improvised explosive device during an exercise at Camp Lemonier in Djibouti. Senior Airman Sarah Stegman/USAF
US Navy crewmen took apart an explosives-laden Nazi 'beetle' remote-control miniature tank in June 1944. The US military had dismissed as laughable the idea of remote-controlled weaponry before the war. AP
A 33-foot paper balloon made by the Japanese was designed to float across the Pacific and drop incendiary bombs over North America in 1945. The balloons were a success, but press coverage was muzzled for fear more balloons would follow if the Japanese found out. US Army geologists analyzed the sand ballast found at the balloons' crash sites and determined where the launching sites might be. Photo reconnaissance found plants producing hydrogen near the suspected launch sites. The factories were bombed, and the 'Vengeance balloons' campaign ceased. AP
Israeli-made drones 'Etop' (foreground), an electrically powered tethered observation platform, and 'Heron,' for strategic and tactical missions, were on display at the Paris Air Show at Le Bourget Airport in July. Pierre Verdy/AFP/Newscom
Protesting the weapon they fear most, members of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-insaf (Movement for Justice) Party held aloft a burning model of a drone aircraft during a rally in Peshawar on May 13. Civilian deaths caused by drone strikes have drawn international scrutiny. K. Pervez/Reuters/File
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