Col. Larry Felder, USAF Battle Lab Commander, says, "UAVs will not
replace manned aircraft. There are missions they can't do. But what
they're good at is what I call the dull dirty and dangerous."

For example, UAVs can now be linked to robots on the ground. Those
robots can be sent into dangerous areas instead of sending troops. In
the air, a new generation of Predator is on the way, bigger, more
powerful.

Col. Felder says the Air Force is also developing an unmanned combat
robot as big as a stealth, and eventually, entire fleets of
intelligent stealthy UAVs will take to the skies, talk to each other,
and coordinate their attacks, no pilots required. Bigger UAVs are
interesting, but it's the tiny ones that will blow your mind.

Felder said, "There's a whole family of small UAVs evolving at DARPA
and the labs. They're exploring very tiny, extremely tiny insect sized
and some of those tiny contraptions might already be flying in Nevada.

Citizen watchdog Chuck Clark thinks the security around the Area 51
military base has heightened recently because of robo-bugs. "... flies
close to the ground, the size of a model airplane, maybe even insect
sized."

According to published reports, one micro bot in development will
imitate the flying motion of dragonflies. NASA has said that its
working on UAVs that are not only the same size as bees, but will even
fly and navigate just like bees. Such robo gadgets could be used to
explore the harsh surface of Mars, or other worlds, and perform
maintenance duties on the exteriors of space ships during long
missions. Closer to home, UAVs could eventually be used to patrol our
borders or for homeland security.

"What they provide is persistence. They have the capability to stare
for a long time. Over one frigging building to take one guy out or to
follow to a nest, or on a coastline, what's coming in, what's going
out," Col. Felder explained.

You've got to figure that law enforcement agencies will want their own
UAVs at some point for criminal surveillance. And there will be
commercial uses too. Already in Japan, something like the Predator has
been adapted to work as a crop duster.

The sky, literally, is the limit. Of course, the battle lab is focused
only on military applications and there is no shortage of ideas.
Felder says, "We have thirteen initiatives, eleven are unclassified,
two are in the classified realm.

A gigantic new hangar and headquarters is being built at Indian
Springs, a structure big enough to accommodate a new generation of
much larger UAVs, not to mention the smaller ones. Since the Air Force
is putting millions of dollars into the project, it looks like UAVs
are in Indian Springs to stay:

UAV "Battle Lab" northwest of Las Vegas
http://www.klas-tv.com/Global/story.asp?S=3001647&nav=168XWqqN