By Walid Shoebat
In Joel, the Bible speaks of crawling locusts, chewing locusts and swarming locusts. It also speaks of tormenting locusts that will go after anyone who has the mark of the beast on their foreheads. The future holds some astonishing surprises, but for now, Palestinian security site close to Hamas in Gaza are complaining about Israeli spying locusts discovered hovering to monitor the movements of Hamas in order to find the place where Israeli soldiers were held hostage in the prison sectors in Gaza.
Technical specialist in the Hamas security sector are saying that recently these electronic flying locusts which do not exceed a small bird are geared to monitor the movements of Hamas’s military movement in order to reach through them to the place where the soldiers are held prisoners.
The source explained that after analyzing images taken by these insects show that there are targets and pictures of Israeli soldiers stored in memory in order to seek them out.
It has been reported that Israeli drones are getting tiny. Their latest project – a locust-shaped drone weighing just 20 grams – the smallest in its range so far – can gather intelligence inside buildings.
The new miniscule surveillance device can take color pictures and is capable of a vertical take-off and hover flight, just like a helicopter, reported the daily Israel Hayom. Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) says this may come in handy in ground clashes, when a soldier would merely take it out of a pocket and send behind the enemy’s line.
The insect-drone, with its 0.15-gram camera and memory card, is managed remotely with a special helmet. Putting on the helmet, you find yourself in the cockpit and virtually see what it sees – in real time.
“The butterfly’s advantage is its ability to fly in an enclosed environment. There is no other aerial vehicle that can do that today,” Dubi Binyamini, head of IAI’s mini-robotics department, told Israel Hayom.
Israeli “butterfly” UAV. Image courtesy: Israel Hayom (Image from http://www.israelhayom.co.il)
The virtually noiseless insect flaps its four wings 14 times per second. Almost translucent, it looks like an overgrown moth, but is still smaller than some natural butterflies.
This is bio-mimicry, when technology imitates nature. And this has proved to hide a trap. When the device was tested at a height of 50-meters, birds and flies tended to fall behind the device arranging into a flock.
The IAI, Israel’s major aerospace and aviation manufacturer, needs two more years to polish their “butterfly” project. The product seems to fall into the trend of reducing drone size. Their recent models promoted for city observation and conflicts were the Ghost, weighing 4 kg, and Mosquito, which weighs only 500 grams.
While the spy insect may bring “a real technological revolution,” as the developer predicts, to the military field, questions remain how it will change the civil life. The drone is also propped up for police use and there is little doubt that secret services will be only too happy to grab such an intricate weapon.
But the size of such instruments can change:
Is it possible that these instruments would have something to do in harming the enemy in the future? In Revelation 9, the Bible speaks of locusts that were given power like that of scorpions that were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any plant or tree, but only those people who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads. Is it possible these will be programmed to go after only the Muslims with the banners and Islamic badges on their foreheads?
Only God knows and only time will tell.