US military scientists have come up with a miniature drone that can fit in the palm of a hand, and is ready to be dropped from the sky just like a mobile phone with wings.

The ‘micro air vehicle’ has been named after the insect that inspired its invention, the Cicada, which spends years underground before appearing in great swarms, reproducing and then dropping to the ground dead.

Aaron Kahn of the Naval Research Laboratory told AFP, “The idea was why we can't make UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) that have the same sort of profile. We will put so many out there, it will be impossible for the enemy to pick them all up”.

The ‘Cicada’, short for Covert Autonomous Disposable Aircraft, was designed to be a smaller, cheaper and simpler as compared to other robotic aircraft that still can carry out missions on remote battlefields. It has no motor and only about 10 parts, due to which it resembles a paper aeroplane with a circuit board.

Scientists have designed it to glide to programmed GPS co-ordinates after being dropped from an aircraft, a balloon or larger drone.

Kahn, a flight controls engineer at the naval lab said that the prototype cost just a thousand dollars, and that this cost could come down to as little as $250 apiece.

Three years ago, in a test in Yuma, Arizona, Cicada drones were released from 57,600 feet (17,500 meters). During the test, the little drone flew or fell 11 miles, and landed within 15 feet of its target.

The Cicada drone have the ability to fly at around 46 miles (74 kilometers) per hour and are virtually silent as they have no engine or propulsion system.

Daniel Edwards, an aerospace engineer at the Naval Research Laboratory, said that it looked like a bird flying down, and was very difficult to see.