The Black Hornet is exactly the kind of drone that scares people about drones. It's small, fitting easily into the palm of a hand or a pouch pocket. It's name evokes Black Hawk, an iconic military helicopter that features prominently in conspiracy theories. And it's entirely a military device, in the works for years and used by the British military since at least 2013. Now, American Special Forces are getting their hands on the tiny flyer.

Despite its ominous name and alien-helicopter appearance, the Black Hornet is a fundamentally simple drone: it's a camera that flies, useful for the military as a sneaky scout. The pilot uses a one-handed controller and watches video from a chest-mounted screen. The data sent back by the hornet is stored in a container on the pilot, so if enemies catch the Black Hornet (which can be done with, like, a butterfly net), they don't know what it saw. It films in normal light and infrared, has a range of about two-thirds of a mile, and lasts as long as 25 minutes in the air.