Originally posted by panzerjager:
Current technology UAVs, if used to scout out for routes of advance
through fortified objectives, are very clearly a liability given
their level of signature reduction, especially in the visual and
aural fields. Even the upcoming potentially advantageous micro-UAVs
are not significant improvements in themselves.
Things being that these current technology UAVs give themselves
away immediately upon discovery - why? Because to the enemy, they
look like they don't belong and deserve to be blasted away
immediately. And the enemy does not need to see them in order to
know they're around - their powerplants are noisy enough.
is it viable for the enemy to launch a SAM at a UAV? kinda
expensive i think...
The ultimate UAVs (or even UGVs) will be those that totally look
(and sound) benign - things that look natural and blend in with the
environment, e.g. for UAVs, could be as small as housflies and look
(and fly if possible) exactly like them, allowing them to actually
penentrate enemy strongholds with impunity to scout them out.
that's definitely very interesting 
imagine if a section has at its disposal one or two of them which
they can use to fly ahead of the section in a BUA to scan through
windows, look round corners and detect ambushes... definitely one
that could save countless lives on the side using it.
Then, for UGVs, could be a 'stray dog' or 'stray cat' embedded
with sensor and motor implants to be controlled by remote. To add
to realism, such UAVs/UGVs could even interact with enemy entities
and environments in order to 'coerce' them into inadvertently
divulging of additional valuable information
not sure i understand that application... care to elaborate?
