Florida-based company Duke Robotics has built a gun-carrying drone that can carry and fire machine guns and grenade launchers, thereby potentially decreasing the number of troops required on the battlefield. The start-up company has already been lauded by the Department of Defense (DoD) for its prototype, which Duke Robotics is calling the 'Tikad', as well as sparking interest from the Israeli army.

The unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is remote-controlled, and according to BT, is capable of safely carrying machine guns or grenade launchers and firing them from the drone. Naturally, this would put physical persons out of harm's way and instead employ the risk of losing drones instead of the lives of U.S. troops. According to BT, Duke Robotics has garnered itself a 'security innovation award' from the DoD, which is certainly a big boost for the startup, and a sign that their prototypes may actually be safe and functional.

Thankfully, we have a promo video of Duke Robotics' 'Tikad' which gives us a slightly clearer picture of this thing in action.