China’s National University of Defence Technology (NUDT) has developed a mosquito-sized drone designed for covert military operations. Details are a little thin on the ground, but its development is likely focusing on surveillance and reconnaissance missions in complex or sensitive environments.

The drone's main unique selling point is its compact size, making it relatively easy to hide or conceal. It has two leaflike wings that are reportedly able to flap just like an insect's wings.

“Here in my hand is a mosquito-like type of robot. Miniature bionic robots like this one are especially suited to information reconnaissance and special missions on the battlefield,” Liang Hexiang, a student at NUDT, told CCTV while holding up the drone between his fingers.

The drone also has three hair-thin "legs" that could be used for perching or landing. Dinky drones of this kind could likely be used in urban combat, search and rescue, or electronic surveillance.

Rise of the mosquito microdrone

It could also be a valuable tool for reconnaissance and covert special missions. To make it work, the drone features advanced integration of power systems, control electronics, and sensors, all in an incredibly tiny package.

These drones can operate undetected, making them valuable in covert warfare, espionage, or tactical reconnaissance. However, given their size, they are pretty challenging to design and build.

Engineering at that scale is challenging, particularly with components such as batteries, communications, and sensors that must be miniaturized without sacrificing functionality.

Its development may also signal a broader trend. For example, the U.S., Norway, and other countries are also investing in micro-UAVs for both military and non-military purposes.

Norway's "Black Hornet" is a prime example. This palm-sized device is in service with many Western militaries and is used for close-range scouting. The latest version, "Black Hornet 4," has improved durability and range.

Developed by Teledyne FLIR Defence, this drone won the 2025 US Department of Defence Blue UAS Refresh award, which recognises unmanned aerial systems. The model’s enhanced battery life, weather resilience, and communication range address common challenges faced by microdrone developers.

Applications beyond the army

Harvard has also previously unveiled its RoboBee micro-UAV. Similarly powered using flapping "wings," this drone can fly, land, and even transition from water to air.

In 2021, the US Air Force confirmed that it was developing tiny drones. However, there have been no updates regarding any completed technology or deployment.

Beyond military applications, micro-UAVs like these could have essential roles in other industries. In the medical sciences, for example, similar technologies are being researched for use in surgery, drug delivery, diagnostics, and medical imaging.

It could also be used in applications such as environmental monitoring, where future microdrones could be utilized for pollution tracking, crop monitoring, or disaster response.

Looking at the bigger picture, "microdrones" like these mark a significant step in military micro-robotics, demonstrating that countries like China are advancing rapidly in next-generation surveillance tools.

It also highlights a global race where small, intelligent, and stealthy robots could redefine how both soldiers and scientists interact with the world, whether on a battlefield or inside a human body.

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A company on Russia's doorstep that sent its war robots to Ukraine got a crash course in what soldiers need

• An European defense firm's ground robots are being used by Ukrainian soldiers.

• The experiences there have led to key changes in its products, the Milrem Robotics' CEO.

• He said Europe's militaries should be learning from Ukraine's fight in case Russia attacks.

A military robotics company based in a NATO country bordering Russia says battlefield use of its machines in Ukraine provided valuable insight that led it to rethink its technology and how it could better meet wartime demands.

Estonia's Milrem Robotics makes autonomous ground robots that can be used to gather intelligence, evacuate wounded troops, dispose of explosive devices, and carry weaponry like machine guns.

Its THeMIS model, which can carry a payload of up to 2,645.5 pounds and travel at up to 12 miles per hour, is in Ukraine, clearing mines, carrying cargo, and moving out injured soldiers.

Kuldar Väärsi, the founder and CEO of Milrem Robotics, told Business Insider that Western weapons makers and militaries need to be learning from what's happening in Ukraine and that the company's experiences there have led to some changes in its products.

Väärsi said that developments in Ukraine are "totally different" from peacetime, when weapons are used in training and exercises.

The company has been closely watching for ways to make its robots better, both to help Ukraine and to help Europe if needed.

One key area has been the simplicity of use. He said the THeMIS was "already quite simple and very easy system to control," but the needs on the battlefield meant it had to be even simpler.

He said that in peacetime, equipment might only be used by experienced troops with training. "In Ukraine, in real war, you can't follow that," Väärsi said.

"Basically, anybody who needs that equipment will use it, and the more intuitive and simple you make the user interface and you make the usability, the more certain you can be that actually it'll be properly used and efficiently used and it'll be useful for the troops."

The electronic warfare battle in Ukraine, in which both sides are jamming and spoofing everything — drones, comms, GPS, and more— has also sparked big changes in uncrewed systems technology.

"What we have learned and changed and implemented in our systems is everything related to EW, communication, and cyber," the Milrem CEO said.

Evolutions in countermeasures like electronic warfare have led to developments like fiber-optic drones and AI-enabled drones that are resistant to enemy jamming.

"What we can see as a trend in Ukraine is that technologies around communication change basically weekly," Väärsi said, referring to the combat systems that rely heavily on stable signals. The feedback from Ukraine means "we have changed quite significantly our design and our products," he said.

Väärsi said the company was "very eager" to provide its systems to Ukraine it is based in Estonia, a country once part of the Soviet Union like Ukraine and a current Russian neighbor worried about the possibility of an attack on its sovereignty.

Estonia is among the biggest defense spenders in NATO as a proportion of GDP and one of the countries sounding the alarm the loudest about Russia.

"It's our mission to support Ukraine as much as we can, to help them win this war. And even if it's as little as sending our vehicles, then we should certainly do it," Väärsi said.

He said it's a good business move, too. "If you look at it from the validation perspective, the equipment which doesn't justify itself in Ukraine, why should that be even necessary?"

Milrem was founded in 2013, and Väärsi said that before this war, "quite a lot of people were talking about unmanned ground vehicles in defense," but there were also "lots of doubts around it."

This war "has demonstrated that unmanned ground vehicles have a really important place on the battlefield," he said.

Learning from Ukraine

Many Western governments want their countries' battlefield technology in Ukraine so companies can learn how best to be ready for any potential conflict with Russia — something many European countries warn could happen.

It's something many Western defense companies want too. Their products can be battle-tested and updated, proving their worth and increasing sales.

Luke Pollard, the UK's armed forces minister, said last month: "If you are a drone company and you do not have your kit on the front line in Ukraine, you might as well give up."

Väärsi said that Milrem Robotics has a team that regularly visits Ukraine, meets military units, and works directly with the operators who use the company's equipment. It will also soon have a team based in Ukraine to "be closer to Ukrainian forces and to support them even better," he shared.

Many companies work closely with soldiers to aid development. A Ukrainian drone operator previously told BI that he texts and FaceTimes with drone makers about their products to encourage a better iterative design and development process.

Robots of the future

Ground robots are particularly useful on the battlefield because they can be used to move a lot more weight than the flying drones and often more than humans can, fire from positions that are not safe for soldiers to fight from, and travel closer to Russian positions than any human fighter can safely.

Väärsi said he sees the robots' role "as a first line of defense or offense," keeping troops safer. That benefits Ukraine, which doesn't have manpower to spare.

"You don't move your troops in front, but you move your unmanned systems," he said.

Väärsi noted Ukraine, which has a rapidly growing defense industry, has also developed a "very capable" ground robots industry.

It's a technology the West and others as well are looking at more and more. Germany's ARX Robotics opened Europe's largest production facility for ground military robots this year, and companies across the continent are making new models.

Milrem is playing a leading role, heading a consortium developing unmanned ground systems that received $56 million in funding from the European Defense Fund. Its robots are capable platforms that Russian researchers actually put a bounty on, encouraging soldiers to try to steal one to advance Russia's work in this space.

The company's other products include larger combat vehicles, like HAVOC, which has a payload capacity of 5 tons. It also has an AI-enabled intelligent functions kit, which lets the vehicles move autonomously. It says that its products are part of robotics programs or in service in 19 countries, including the US, UK, and Germany.

Ground robots are one of many things Ukraine's international partners are watching closely as they look into what sort of tactics, weaponry, and so on they should adopt.

Milrem collaborates with companies that are in Ukraine, and Väärsi encouraged other foreign defense companies to do the same.

"What I consider very important is that in Europe we need to learn and very seriously learn what is ongoing in Ukraine: what works, what doesn't work, what mindsets need to be shifted to be better equipped if — hopefully that never happens — but if Russia decides to expand their activities in the warfare."

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Secretive Russian-Made Mi-17 Helicopter Makes Unusual Appearance In Tucson

Residents of the Tucson, Arizona area were startled earlier this week by a group of helicopters, including at least one Russian-made Mi-17 Hip, making very low nighttime flights as part of what turned out to be a U.S. military exercise. This kind of domestic urban training is not uncommon, especially for U.S. special operations forces, and often comes at least as a surprise to bystanders. However, this instance is notably out of the ordinary in that the helicopters look to belong to a particularly shadowy unit.

Imagery of the helicopters flying over Tucson first began to emerge on social media on the night of June 17-18. The Pima County Sheriff’s Department subsequently confirmed to local media that the helicopters, one of which was an Mi-17 with an overall gray paint scheme, were affiliated with the U.S. military. The grounds of an abandoned school were used as part of the training exercise.

“The only thing I knew was that there was a lot of noise, flash bangs, helicopters, personnel, lights, sirens, that type of stuff,” Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos, who was apparently unaware that this week’s exercise was set to occur, told KOLD News 13, a local CBS-affiliated television station yesterday. “From my understanding, we didn’t even train. We were just there to assist the DoD in their training efforts.”

“When he looked into it, he found out his SWAT team facilitated the location with the Department of Defense to use solely for their training weeks ago,” KOLD‘s report added. “I will not blame DoD. I will not blame South Tucson. This was on us. We could easily have said, use our location (elsewhere) at 10 p.m., I don’t understand what the thinking was there.”

Nanos apologized for the lack of communication with the public and pledged not to let a similar incident happen in the future.

TWZ has reached out to the Pima County Sheriff’s Department and the U.S. military for more information.

As it turns out, an additional video, seen below, was posted on Instagram on June 17 showing what looks to be the same gray Mi-17 flying together with a trio of Bell 407 helicopters just outside Tucson. There was also a sighting of an identical-looking Hip at Pinal Airpark northwest of Tucson earlier this month.

Whether or not it may have been a factor in the lack of advance notice to the public or to the sheriff about the exercise, the gray Mi-17 seen during the exercise is a dead ringer for Hips tied to a highly secretive U.S. Army element known as the Aviation Technology Office (ATO). Previously known as the Flight Concepts Division (FCD), ATO is headquartered at Felker Army Airfield, which is part of Fort Eustis in Virginia.

In addition to gray-painted examples, ATO-linked Mi-17s have also been seen painted tan and wearing a tan-and-brown camouflage scheme. These helicopters have a distinctive configuration that includes a nose-mounted weather radar, a sensor ball turret under the right side of the cockpit, supplemental armor panels around the front, a large particle separator in front of their engine intakes, and various antennas on the fuselage and tail boom.

ATO is understood to operate several Bell 407s in a configuration that aligns with what can be seen in the recent video shot outside Tucson. Both types were notably seen together at a farm in North Carolina back in May 2021 after the Mi-17 made an emergency landing there. The Bell 407 brought in additional personnel and repair parts to get the Hip airborne again.

In January 2021, Bell 407s likely belonging to ATO had also been spotted flying around Los Angeles and other nearby locales, conducting what appeared to be urban training that included touch-and-goes on helipads on top of a number of buildings. TWZ reported on those sightings at the time.

Gray-painted Mi-17s with the same general configuration were also spotted in North and South Carolina in separate instances last year.

As already noted, U.S. special operations forces, in general, regularly train in and around cities and towns across the United States, including for air assault missions. Doing so offers valuable real-world opportunities to hone important skill sets that cannot otherwise be replicated to the same degree with dedicated urban training facilities. This includes the fact that these are “live” locations full of real hazards and neutral bystanders. At the same time, poor and/or short-notice communication with the public, as well as more serious screwups, have caused controversy around these kinds of training events, which can also involve automatic guns firing blank rounds and simulated explosive devices, on multiple occasions in the past.

When it comes to ATO (and FCD before it), specifically, it remains one of the most secretive aviation units within the U.S. military. From what is known publicly, it specializes in providing discreet aviation support for covert and clandestine operations, and also has a bleeding-edge developmental function. For instance, ATO/FCD is understood to have been involved with the development of the stealthy derivatives of the UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter employed during the 2011 raid in Abbottabad, Pakistan, that led to the death of then-Al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden.

It is worth noting here that the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) also has a long history of operating Mi-17 variants, including through various secretive contractors. CIA-linked Hips were very visibly active as part of evacuation operations in Afghanistan after the fall of the capital Kabul to the Taliban in August 2021.

Other less secretive elements of the U.S. military also make use of contractor-operated Mi-17s, as well as other foreign fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters, for training and evaluation purposes. The Hip is in widespread use globally in a wide variety of configurations, including heavily armed transport types. It is a design American forces regularly encounter in service with allies and partners, and that is also part of the potential threat picture for operations worldwide.

Still, the particular features of the gray Mi-17 seen this week in the Tucson area, together with the Bell 407s, point most strongly to ATO.

Whether or not more details emerge about the recent urban training exercise in Tucson, Arizona, the participants in this case look to have been particularly unusual.