Watch: This navy drone can operate above and even beneath water

With the potential adoption and application of drones in the future being unquestioned, their utility continues to be extended into new and uncharted territories. And when they are used as Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs,) their capability increases manifold. More so, when researchers invent ways to use them in the air as well as underwater.

Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, have been working on an unmanned drone that makes regular drones appear decidedly prozaic--this one is built to operate at a depth at several hundred feet underwater, then rise to the surface and operate in the air as a regular quadcopter drone.

Conveniently named the Corrosion Resistant Aerial Covert Unmanned Nautical System (CRACUNS,) it is crafted using 3D printing techniques and using materials that make it suited to even extended operation in corrosive environment such as salt water. In tests that saw the drone submerged in saline water for several months, the drone continued to operate normally even after being subjected to such a harsh environment.

Watch it in action: