A state-linked Moscow neurotechnology firm boasts its operators can steer flocks of the flying pests across the sky at will.
Researchers have launched field tests of so-called ‘bird-biodrones’ known as PJN-1, ordinary pigeons surgically implanted with neural chips that allow technicians to direct their flight routes.
The birds can be steered remotely in real time, with operators able to upload flight commands by stimulating targeted regions of the brain.
The pigeon then ‘believes it wants to fly’ in the instructed direction, claim sources at Neiry, which has deep ties to the Kremlin’s hi-tech innovation machine.
Surgery is carried out in which electrodes are inserted into the brain with millimetre precision.
The birds wear tiny solar-powered backpacks containing onboard electronics, GPS tracking, and the receiver that transmits signals into the neural implant.
Chillingly, Neiry insists that ‘no training is required’, declaring that any animal becomes ‘remotely controllable after the operation’ – with pigeons capable of covering 310 miles a day, or more than 1,850 miles in a week.
Hellbound and Down 