Tally ho!

SOME hover like insects, and are not much bigger. Some can be pulled from a rucksack and launched by hand. Others require runways in order to take off. Without the need for an expensively trained pilot and all his supporting gear, the market for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) has quickly turned into a $5 billion business. And it will not stop there. This week, on the eve of the Farnborough Air Show near London, BAE Systems, a British defence contractor, unveiled Taranis. Named after the Celtic god of thunder, this is a drone that takes robotic warfare to a new level.

Taranis is about the size of a small jet trainer, but with the look of a stealth bomber to make it hard to detect on radar. Capable of being operated by remote control from anywhere in the world via a satellite link, it can fly from one continent to another, carrying out surveillance or dropping bombs and firing missiles at ground targets. But it is also capable of another trick: the ability to defend itself, like a jet fighter, if it is attacked by another drone or by a manned aircraft.

It is, as BAE says, “a prelude to the next generation of fighting capacity.” More UAVs are coming. Boeing, for one, has a hydrogen-powered UAV called the Phantom Eye that will fly for four days at 20,000 metres (66,000 feet). Some of the pilots showing off their skills at Farnborough may be the last of their kind.