--- title: "Drones built to look like birds evaded detection at Air Force tech exercise" description: "The drones built by U.S.-based Ornadyne are designed to look like birds you might see flying in any region of the world." date: "2026-11-03" modified: "2026-11-03" authors: - name: "Patty Nieberg" job_title: "Senior Reporter" link: "https://taskandpurpose.com/authors/patty-nieberg.md" url: "https://taskandpurpose.com/news/drone-mimicking-bird-test/" categories: - "Air Force" - "Aircraft" - "Drones" - "Military Branches" - "News" - "Tech & Tactics" --- # Drones built to look like birds evaded detection at Air Force tech exercise ![Mimicking a crow in shape and profile, Ornadyne's O1 launches during an evaluation during "Game of Drones" 26-3 at Edwards Air Force Base, Sept. 17, 2026. The 01 demonstrated the ability to spoof an aviary flight profile to modern radars. “Game of Drones” is a recurring experimentation event focused on wargame-inspired scenarios for sUAS/C-sUAS systems and relevant technologies. The vast and restricted airspace at Edwards AFB provides a flexible sandbox for sUAS/C-sUAS test and development. “Game of Drones” is a recurring experimentation event focused on wargame-inspired scenarios for sUAS/C-sUAS systems and relevant technologies. The vast and restricted airspace at Edwards AFB provides a flexible sandbox for sUAS/C-sUAS test and development. The event is a collaboration between DCMA’s US-X unit and the 412th Test Wing's Experimental Test Force on behalf of the joint force. (Air Force photo by James West)]() *Mimicking a crow in shape and profile, Ornadyne's O1 launches during an evaluation during "Game of Drones" at Edwards Air Force Base, Sept. 17, 2026. Air Force photo by James West.* A wing-flapping drone appearing to fly like a bird evaded sensor detection at a recent Air Force tech exercise in the Mojave Desert. Ornadyne’s small O1 ornithopter drone doesn’t use propellers like most drones. Instead, it mimics the flight mechanics of a bird by flapping its wings to stay in the air. The small unmanned aerial system (UAS) is designed to resemble a bird, while it collects intelligence or surveys an area at low altitudes. “It looks like a bird, it moves similar to a bird, and humans and counter-UAS systems can misclassify it as a bird,” Armen Arakelyan, one of Ornadyne’s co-founders, said in a Department of Defense [release](). “It’s also a lot quieter because we replaced propellers with flapping wings.” The test was part of the military’s annual “Game of Drones” event in September at Edwards Air Force Base, which sits in the Mojave Desert in Southern California. The base hosts drone exercises each quarter to test new tech. The event is sponsored by the Air Force 412th Test Wing’s Experimental Test Force and the Defense Contract Management Agency’s [Blue List team](), which approves commercial drones for sale to the U.S. military. It was the first time that the U.S.-based drone manufacturer tested its ability to hide from detection systems built by other private companies, said Arakelyan, who is also a former engineer for Elon Musk’s SpaceX. ![Mimicking a crow in shape and profile, Ornadyne's O1 returns after a successful flight demonstration during "Game of Drones" 26-3 at Edwards Air Force Base, Sept. 17, 2026. The 01 demonstrated the ability to spoof an aviary flight profile to modern radars. “Game of Drones” is a recurring experimentation event focused on wargame-inspired scenarios for sUAS/C-sUAS systems and relevant technologies. The vast and restricted airspace at Edwards AFB provides a flexible sandbox for sUAS/C-sUAS test and development. The event is a collaboration between DCMA’s US-X unit and the 412th Test Wing's Experimental Test Force on behalf of the joint force. (Air Force photo by James West)]() *Mimicking a crow in shape and profile, Ornadyne's O1 returns after a successful flight demonstration during "Game of Drones" 26-3 at Edwards Air Force Base, Sept. 17, 2026. Air Force photo by James West.* The O1 drone weighs 1 pound and can fly up to 10 kilometers, which is a little more than 6 miles, for over an hour, according to a company fact sheet. The drone can carry a small payload, like a camera used to do target recognition for surveillance missions. Many drones are built to evade detection by masking the signatures they emit, [using different frequencies or mobile SIMs](), flying autonomously with a pre-planned flight path, or using [fiber optic cables]() to bypass electronic surveillance. The O1 takes the method of blending in with the environment since the company says it can change the drone’s color, wingspan, proportions and silhouette to match a native bird species operating in a particular region. “We learned during ‘Game of Drones’ that sensors deployed by the other companies here could not establish our drone using their detection equipment,” Geourg Kivijian, Ornadyne’s other co-founder, said. “It registered as a bird, which is exactly what we wanted.” Ornadyne is not the first company to dream up a bird-like drone. The innovation also hasn’t been lost on a group of conspiracy theorists promoting, somewhat satirically, that [Birds Aren’t Real](). The notion behind the group’s [claims is that the U.S. government has replaced all birds with surveillance drones](). Well, they might not be far off. In fact, an entire category of unmanned systems known as [ornithopter drones]() use ‘wings’ instead of propellers or jets to mimic birds or insects in the sky. In 2024, video of a People’s Liberation Army exercise showed a Chinese Jiaolong Commando — which are akin to the Navy SEALs — [releasing their own bird-like drone]() resembling a Eurasian tree sparrow flapping its wings. Fortunately, the robo-birds in that video appear to be non-migratory. ## Author Patty is a senior reporter for Task & Purpose. She's reported on the military for six years, embedding with the National Guard during a hurricane and covering Guantanamo Bay legal proceedings for an alleged al Qaeda commander. Her previous bylines can be found at the *Associated Press*, *Bloomberg Government*, *Washington Post*, *The New York Times*, and *ABC*. You can reach Patty by email at [Patty.Nieberg@taskandpurpose.com](). ### Author social links [Twitter]() [LinkedIn]() ## More - [Watch an Air Force B-52 Stratofortress go toe-to-toe with a flock of birds]() - [Air Force Deploys ‘Bird Cannon’ In Opening Salvo Of Global War On Geese]() - [The Air Force Wants To Use Falcons To Punch Drones Out Of The Sky]() - [Why the Air Force uses a ‘chicken gun’ to launch bird carcasses at its own aircraft]() - [Toxic chemicals detected at Minot Air Force Base]() - [The Air Force’s new drone-in-a-box is like ‘scramble the fighters’ for base security forces]() - [Details in an Air Force crash report open window on drone flights]() - [Air Force reactivates Reaper drone squadron at Nevada base]()