New Drones Enlisted as Bomb-Fighters

The U.S. military has tried everything to stop roadside bombs, from radio frequency jammers to hulking trucks to blimps to lightning guns. Now, the Pentagon is getting set to deploy out a new crew of bomb-fighters: robotic aircraft with specialized sensors, designed to spot the deadly weapons and the militants who are planting them.
The agency has invested in robo-planes before. But these latest efforts seem to be concentrated on smaller, lower-flying drones that can closely track the action on the ground.
The "Sentinel Hawk" is a modified Silver Fox drone, equipped with infrared sensors and "built to keep tabs on a specific road or path," Defense News explains. A single operator will be able to command teams of the eight-foot long aircraft, as they patrol the roadways for bombs.
The "Yellow Jacket" robo-copter gives warzone convoys an unmanned eye-in-the-sky. For up to eight hours, the drone will follow around -- and keep watch on -- a vehicle, beaming what it sees down to the ground.
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2009/01/anti-ied-drones.html

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