Ukraine's unprecedented drone rescue of a wounded soldier from the battlefield has shown once again how battlefield necessity can spur innovation. The operation was revealed just days after separate Ukrainian drones designed for casualty evacuation were deployed for frontline testing, going a step beyond decades of US military experimentation with similar concepts.
The evacuation took place at an undisclosed time and location on the front, where the presence of Russian drones and landmines made it impractical to send in a wheeled ground robot, according to The Kyiv Independent. On October 19, Ukraine's Army shared a video showing the wounded soldier securing himself in a harness suspended beneath a heavy six-rotor hexacopter before being flown to safety.
"This is a historic event, the next stage of evacuating the wounded, which we will all come to," said Napalm, a programmer with the 92nd separate assault brigade's unmanned ground systems company, who went by his callsign in keeping with Ukrainian military practice. "Now the serious systematic work begins, so that such missions are carried out constantly."
To carry out the improvised aerial evacuation, the 92nd brigade prepared and tested a Heavy Shot AYUDAG 6 hexacopter, provided free of charge by the Ukrainian manufacturer Gurzuf Defence. The drone was equipped with a winch, and special carabiners were delivered to the soldier so he could attach himself to it, according to a Gurzuf Defence blog post.
The soldier, who serves with Ukraine's 30th separate mechanized brigade, had spent nearly 500 days at a frontline position under threat of Russian fire, relying on friendly drone deliveries for ammunition and other supplies. The flight lasted 1 hour and 14 minutes and covered nearly 39 miles (62 kilometers). The hexacopter can reportedly carry up to 200 pounds (90 kilograms).
Source: Ars Technica · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing