Lanius (kamikaze drone)

2022: Kamikaze Drone Announcement

In mid-November 2022, the Israeli defense company Elbit Systems released an autonomous kamikaze drone Lanius. The device is a maneuverable racing quadcopter with a number of AI-based reconnaissance, mapping and target classification capabilities, as well as the ability to explode when necessary.

Lanius is designed to travel in groups of three, perched atop a larger mother ship-type drone until they are deployed. Its maximum takeoff weight is 1.25 kg, including a lethal or non-lethal warhead weighing up to 150 g. A small hobby-class lithium battery provides a maximum flight time of about seven minutes.

A flying kamikaze drone has been created that knows how to hide and attack only armed people

On a simple, boxy chassis, the Lanius carbon fiber racing drone is equipped with numerous sensors and cameras, as well as Nvidia Jetson's AI system, specifically designed to quickly interpret fast, low-power data streams. It is associated with Legion-X software to control the Elbit combat swarm for autonomous flights of several drones.

Alone or as part of a swarm, Lanius is designed to penetrate the territory and begin autonomous mapping it using AI capabilities and collision prevention systems. The drone will detect and mark points of interest, as well as things like doors and windows, both closed and open, and will penetrate buildings and search them both with or without guidance or direct control from a human pilot.

Lanius is designed to detect people and attempts to classify them as friendly or hostile, combatants or non-combatants, armed or unarmed. When an armed threat is detected, it invites the human operator to "hit" the target using any weapon on board. In this case, there is always a user when using Lanius.

The tactical advantage of Lanius is also the ability to sit in ambush mode, watching a certain zone. In this case, Lanius can land quietly and observe the area. This could certainly be an effective way to monitor the rear or flanks of a group passing through a danger zone.^[1]

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