More photos and stuff to come. But not tonight--I need to sleep.

Morning edit with background cruft:

The SAQ-12, or "Bobwhite" as it is more commonly known, is a semi-autonomous reconnaisance UAV intended for missions where a constant stream of data traffic between the UAV and its operator could compromise the position of human personnel. It derives its popular name from the rising sequence of tones emitted by the SAQ-12 at the end of its bootup sequence when indicating a clean system health check, which resembles a bird call.

Instead of a realtime remote operator, the Bobwhite relies on a milspec 3SA (Symbolic Synthetic Sophont Architecture) processor specifically engineered to parse mission profiles and rules of engagement written in BELGO (Battlespace Encoding Language, Goal-Oriented). These operating parameters can either be uploaded prior to deployment or pushed in-flight, allowing the SAQ-12 to operate with a certain degree of autonomy for up to 20 hours and respond heuristically to scenarios that challenge the defined mission parameters.

The arming of autonomous or semi-autonomous drones is prohibited by treaty, so the Bobwhite's typical role is limited to reconnaisance. While there are functions and logic in BELGO relating to target acquisition and ordinance management, those APIs were explicitly left out of the 3SA implementation on the Bobwhite and other similar drones. However, there are rumors that some special forces units have managed to circumvent these limitations by spoofing the 3SA into treating weapons systems as if they were cameras, and rerouting target acquisition through the Bobwhite's IFF subroutines.

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Non-Lego parts: Brickarms Modern Combat Helmet (trans-clear) as the drone's "eye", which is illuminated by a single Lifelites LED powered by an eLite Jr.

An Airman belonging to the 21st Special Tactics Squadron holds an RQ-11A Raven UAV.The RQ-11A Raven small unmanned aircraft system (UAS) provides real-time direct situational awareness and target information for Air Force Special Operations Command Battlefield Airmen . The Raven falls into the class of Air Force small UAS known as man-portable UAS. The Raven back packable system features two air vehicles, a ground control unit, remote video terminal, transit cases and support equipment. Two specially trained Airmen operate the Raven AV. The AV can be controlled manually or can autonomously navigate a preplanned route.The Raven includes a color electro-optical camera and an infrared camera for night operations. The air vehicle is hand-launched, weighs less than 5 pounds and has an endurance of up to 80 minutes. The Raven UAS has proven itself in combat supporting U.S. operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, and other areas of conflict. The Raven is now used by all of the military services.