U.S. military to covertly deliver payloads with robot rockets

DARPA, the U.S. military's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (AKA the folks with the most wonderful toys),
is dropping a cool $369,677 on a company that specializes in
rocket-shaped robots that can amazingly take off and land in a standing
position.













Called the V-Bat, the rocket-shaped robot is able to take off
vertically like a Harrier jet, and can autonomously proceed to its
destination, as long as it takes less than five hours to fly there. It
can cover a pretty large area considering it can work itself up to
speeds of 140 miles per hour, though it can only carry around five
pounds of gear.

That limits it to transporting cameras, surveillance equipment and
the like, though maybe it could also be modified to, say, deliver
ammunition to a squad that's cut off.

The idea of using unmanned aerial vehicles (or UAVs) to remotely
supply military squadrons, bases and even other stuff such as hospitals
isn't new, but the V-Bat's ability to take off and land vertically is
rare and makes it an ideal candidate.