THE U.S. Military has unleashed a "swarm" of robotic flying machines in the skies over California.

More than 100 of tiny drones were released from three F/A-18 Super Hornets in a test which took place last year.

4 The drones are just 30cm long and can act autonomously using sophisticated artificial intelligence

4 The drones can barely be seen as they are released from three fighter jets

In a video which has just been published online, the tiny 30 centimetre "Perdix" drones are shown zooming out of the fighter jet.

The drones can act autonomously using artificial intelligence and are designed to act as a swarm, communicating and making decisions together.

It is likely the Pentagon sees the mini robots carry out surveillance mission in future, although they could also be used in targeted assassinations.

"Perdix are not pre-programmed synchronised individuals, they are a collective organism, sharing one distributed brain for decision-making and adapting to each other like swarms in nature," said William Roper, director of the Strategic Capabilities Office.

"Because every Perdix communicates and collaborates with every other Perdix, the swarm has no leader and can gracefully adapt to drones entering or exiting the team."

A total of 103 drones took part in the test, where they demonstrated "collective decision-making, adaptive formation flying, and self-healing".

4 Three fighter jets took part in the test

4 Eventually, these expensive and human-piloted planes may be replaced by smaller, cheap and totally expendable robotic war machines

The test was designed to show that "teams of small, inexpensive, autonomous systems to perform missions once achieved only by large, expensive ones".

Drones and robotic killing machines are likely to revolutionise warfare in the coming years, allowing powerful states to terrorise their enemies without actually risking their own soldiers' lives.

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“I congratulate the Strategic Capabilities Office for this successful demonstration,” said Secretary of Defense Ash Carter.

“This is the kind of cutting-edge innovation that will keep us a step ahead of our adversaries. This demonstration will advance our development of autonomous systems.”

It has been suggested that killer robots will have as big an effect on warfare as nuclear weapons, with nations able to unleash swarms of drones instead of putting boots on the ground.

Researchers recently unveiled a system which lets humans control swarms of robots using just their thoughts and eye movements.