Ukraine Claims World's First Drone Evacuation of Wounded Soldier (nbcnews.com) 79
Ukraine says it carried out the world's first evacuation of a wounded soldier by aerial drone, using a heavy-lift hexacopter after enemy drones and landmines made conventional ground evacuation too dangerous. NBC News reports: Shared by the 92nd Separate Assault Brigade on Monday, the video shows the soldier strapping himself into a large drone and being flown at what appears to be relatively low altitude over blurred-out territory. The drone carefully lowers him, and the drone operator greets him with "Welcome back to the ground!" The video also shows blurred faces of drone operators who carried out the mission.
The post said the unidentified infantryman was wounded at his position. "Due to intense enemy drone activity and the presence of landmines, evacuation using conventional unmanned ground vehicles was impossible," the brigade said. "At that point, the specialists in our unit took it upon themselves to attempt something that had never been done before: evacuating a serviceman using an aerial drone," it added.
The craft was a heavy-lift hexacopter, it said, originally designed as a bomber by a Ukrainian manufacturer. It looks about twice the size of the soldier in the video. The specialists working on the mission had to ensure the drone could carry a human being without flipping over or swaying excessively, according to the unit.
The post said the unidentified infantryman was wounded at his position. "Due to intense enemy drone activity and the presence of landmines, evacuation using conventional unmanned ground vehicles was impossible," the brigade said. "At that point, the specialists in our unit took it upon themselves to attempt something that had never been done before: evacuating a serviceman using an aerial drone," it added.
The craft was a heavy-lift hexacopter, it said, originally designed as a bomber by a Ukrainian manufacturer. It looks about twice the size of the soldier in the video. The specialists working on the mission had to ensure the drone could carry a human being without flipping over or swaying excessively, according to the unit.
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So this 16 year old evacuated a wounded solider with her drone? I don't believe you.
A GI Joe actions figure with a band aid across the chest, and duct taped to a DJI drone, counts?
Re:2024 called : been there, done that already (Score:5, Informative)
You do realize the difference between a controlled demo of a drone that can go a max 10 meters for a max 6 minutes in pristine conditions, and getting to a guy who's been trapped in a concrete drainage pipe for 491 days well behind enemy lines, all rescue attempts failed, his comrades dead, constantly being shelled, one foot rotted off and fallen off, the other cut off by him, relying on random drone airdrops of supplies to stay alive, and getting out to him - again, under fire - hoisting him and his rotted legs up, and escaping under fire, maneuvering low around obstacles for cover, without him or the drone being jammed or shot down or him being shot?
You understand the difference, right? The challenge was not "make an object that can lift a weight".
Re:2024 called : been there, done that already (Score:4, Insightful)
Ah, but you're misunderstanding. His dear orange leader has said Ukraine are bad, and it's definitely their fault that diesel prices are high. Nothing to do with said orange moron attacking Iran. His reality is invested in making sure that Ukraine didn't do anything worthwhile.
Re:2024 called : been there, done that already (Score:5, Interesting)
Ukraine has been making heavy lift drones since the start of the war. I hope that answers your question about whether they can "build something that works". Now actually read my post.
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If a 16 year old kid can build something that works with his pocket money in his backyard, why did it take years for some Ukrainian company to make this.
You understand the difference between a single kid with pocket money and a team of engineers with billions in EU funding, right?
Maybe the Ukrainian company didn't want to kill someone by accident, and the 16 year old kids has zero fucks to give about anything? I built a go-kart as a kid, why does it take Ford 2 years to develop a new car? I stopped thinking in an insanely stupid was a child, why are you still doing it as an adult?
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You understand the difference between a single kid with pocket money and a team of engineers with billions in EU funding, right?
I do, but I think you don't. I understand that a kid with pocket money can make something that works, but a team of engineers with billions in EU funding can make something that: 1. works, 2. is built to millitary spec, 3. can be produced at scale, 4. is made of components sourced from reliable suppliers, 5. has been stress-tested, 6. the design, materials, manufacturing process, supply chain, test-results, i.e. all of the above, are documented and certified for compliance to laws and regulations.
P.S. I'
Re: 2024 called : been there, done that already (Score:4, Informative)
Okay Jan. [stripes.com] Whatever you think [ukrinform.net]. You know best [united24media.com].
The term you're looking for is autoamputation [google.com]. Autoamptuation is not "fiction".
Re: 2024 called : been there, done that already (Score:5, Informative)
To elaborate more:
When part of your body undergoes necrosis (tissue death), such as from loss of bloodflow from tissue damage, the body tries to wall off the dead tissue. Where live tissue meets dead, there's an intense inflammatory response, creating a sharp line between the living and dead tissue. White blood cells release enzymes to break down the necrotic tissue. This includes skin, tendons, ligaments, cartilage, etc. Bone does not have to rot away (and even that high explosives can readily shatter and separate bones). With joint capsules and tendons broken down, there no longer is a connection to hold even intact bones together. The weight of the limb alone can pull it off.
Frostbite and trench foot, untreated, will sometimes lead to autoamputation (most commonly individual digits, but sometimes whole extremities). Ergotism outbreaks (ergotism causes peripheral vasoconstriction) commonly caused autoamputation ("A great plague of swollen blisters consumed the people by a loathsome rot, so that their limbs were loosened and fell off before death" - Annales Xantenses, 857). Autoamputation is *famously* an (indirect) side effect of leprosy (no, all those stories of lepers having extremities fall off were not fiction). In "normal" conditions, it's most common in diabetics [google.com]
Re: 2024 called : been there, done that already (Score:1)
Thanks for correcting me. The Slashdot story link I read didn't mention the foot rotting story. Brave guy and good rescue. It may have been better if he took up the initial Russian offer of surrender. It's beyond time to end this senseless war.
Re:2024 called : been there, done that already (Score:5, Insightful)
Ukraine can take credit for, the first time in human history, doing a medevac of a wounded soldier out of a combat zone with a drone. Good for the kid on making the prototype. Various companies have been working on air taxis. They've just been proof of concepts. No one had ever evacuated a badly wounded soldier out of a combat zone, a heavy, unstable, non-aerodynamic load slung under a hexacopter which was agile, stable, reliable, small and fast enough to avoid ground fire, in hellish conditions, as exist on the zero line of the Ukrainian front.
It's not hard to see how that's an accomplishment. Unless one is too emotionally perturbed for whatever reason. Odd for a normal person because Ukraine was an insular, peaceful agrarian nation prior to Russia's invasion, bothering no one, except one tyrant. It's important to avoid becoming hysterical so one doesn't become blinded to reality and subsequently embarrassing oneself.
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You are one evil Mofo. This is not a fake story. I see no reason why Ukraine should not claim a first here. Sure we should put some millions to helping people survive against the invasion of Russia and its attempt at genocide.
Air Assault (Score:2)
If they can use drones to recover wounded soldiers, they can use them to deliver soldiers to or beyond the front. While in most cases they prefer to use this for unmanned ground vehicles, there's no reason they couldn't fly in special forces this way.
Re:Air Assault (Score:4, Interesting)
If they can use drones to recover wounded soldiers, they can use them to deliver soldiers to or beyond the front. While in most cases they prefer to use this for unmanned ground vehicles, there's no reason they couldn't fly in special forces this way.
Recovery is simpler. Less weight, weapons, ammo, comms, and sustainment do no need to be loaded.
Read General Gavin's book "Airborne Warfare" (1949 ?). He discusses various novel ways of delivering airborne troops in the "future". Gen Gavin commanded the 82d Airborne Division during WW2. He might know a thing or two.
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The equipment can be carried by other drones. Though certainly there's all kinds of risks here. A wounded soldier who will die if not extracted has a very different risk profile they'll accept than a healthy soldier going into an attack. You don't want to deliver ammo and supplies to your enemies if the supplies make it, but the soldiers don't. etc etc.
That said, Ukraine has already used a variant on this - they've used these heavy lift drones to deliver land drones that then carry out an attack. That
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If they can use drones to recover wounded soldiers, they can use them to deliver soldiers to or beyond the front. While in most cases they prefer to use this for unmanned ground vehicles, there's no reason they couldn't fly in special forces this way.
The original point of the drone, was to be used as a bomber.
If you’re going to engage in truly unconventional warfare, perhaps the real goal is to not send meatsacks into a meat grinder. Send the fucking drone instead.
Or better yet, fight with a pen instead of a sword.
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The good news on the running out of people front is that Russia is running out of people 10 times faster. The bad news is, Russia has 4 times as many people. That said, those numbers still lie in Ukraine's favour.
war never changes ... (Score:2)
engage in truly unconventional warfare
drones have become conventional warfare now.
Send the fucking drone instead.
that's the catch. drones can create mayhem and kill zones, but you can't really control ground with them (yet). meat is still needed for that.
Or better yet, fight with a pen instead of a sword.
pens are very much used in warfare, have always been. it's the preferred weapon to kill the truth, the first victim. the counter to killer pens has tratitionally been diplomacy, but it's totally out of fashion for some folks, an alien concept.
what about a match of rollerball?
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Unless your proposing they get a guy in close enough to jam a ballpoint between Putin's ribs, I'm not sure angry words are going to be sufficient defence when an enemy is trying to murder your entire country.
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there's no reason they couldn't fly in special forces this way.
Especially given the super quietness of drones that size - oh, wait. What? I... SAID... "OH,. WAIT." :-)
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Ukrainian special forces aren't like the special forces you see in Hollywood movies where Tom Cruise can be the hero by cascading a whole series of unlikely events.
The frontline is also just a collection of villages so nothing to work with either, unless one wants to blow up a nuclear power plant or some secret US bio-lab to contaminate the area.
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Yes, but probably illadvised. A drone is a LOT less stealthier than a squad of dudes crawling between bushes. That said, for getting restocked logistics to the front line, it could definitely be a winner idea. If you have a group behind enemy lines running low on ammo and food, then a drone dropping a bunch of ammo and ration packs to a dead drop is probably a lot safer than sending in Oleg the 18yo runner (who has knowledge of where those guys needing the re-up are and would fold under 5 minutes of car bat
We really should stop jerking Ukraine around (Score:3, Insightful)
They're learning - the hard way - a whole lot of things about modern warfare that all of our western militaries could really benefit from.
But then I guess "America First" means we'll likely limit ourselves to in-house knowledge (because we're the greatest!), including our older ultra-expensive drone tech that in a prolonged conflict will get overwhelmed by an opponent fielding cheap countermeasures.
Re:We really should stop jerking Ukraine around (Score:5, Insightful)
I've been ranting about this for quite some years now. The war[s] of the future will be fought with toy technology, and practically all of the toys are made in China. They are well known for their drones. Everyone else is cooked, and had better up their fucking game instead of playing stupid games with no prizes.
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Everyone else is cooked, and had better up their fucking game instead of playing stupid games with no prizes.
Other militaries didn’t develop their technology by sitting around waiting to see what China will build first. Give that (classified well beyond your knowledge or mine) ingenuity some credit. China sure as shit doesn’t steal it to win DEFCON hacking prizes.
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China sure as shit doesnâ(TM)t steal it to win DEFCON hacking prizes.
Steal it? First of all, it's not stealing when we send it there. Second, they designed their own superior drones, that's why most people are buying them from them. The time when they had to steal shit was decades ago. Now they are leading in a number of fields.
Re:We really should stop jerking Ukraine around (Score:4, Insightful)
What, you think that classified military industrial complex can achieve the kinds of economies of scale that Chinese toy makers can? Dude, give me a break. China will be making these things for $100 while we make them for $1,000,000.
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What, you think that classified military industrial complex can achieve the kinds of economies of scale that Chinese toy makers can? Dude, give me a break. China will be making these things for $100 while we make them for $1,000,000.
China also has no problem with slave labor. Tell an American liberal they’re working “half” days (as in 12-hour shifts) 6 days a week with no overtime and you’ll find a picket line outside the business complete with marching band and slogans, within an hour.
And that’s just the response from the fucking baristas. Imagine the vitriol at the bomb factory.
Comparing American costs to China on anything, is stupid. Why? Because we don’t treat our people the same. At all.
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Comparing American costs to China on anything, is stupid. Why? Because we don’t treat our people the same. At all.
Give us another couple years. We're working on it.
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China also has no problem with slave labor. [...] Comparing American costs to China on anything, is stupid. Why? Because we donâ(TM)t treat our people the same. At all.
Read the 13th amendment, if you can.
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Now the computer chips are made in South Korea and Taiwan and that's problematic. You should probably stop voting Republican because Biden was well on his way to getting Chip factories open in the states and Trump fucked that all up the way he fucks everything up because everything Trump touches dies.
Orange pedophile. I can say those two words and everybody here knows exac
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Calling the parent an idiot and proceeding to repeat what he wrote using different words is an incredible self own. Bravo kid.
Re: We really should stop jerking Ukraine around (Score:2)
That's not what I said.
Learn to read.
Re:We really should stop jerking Ukraine around (Score:5, Insightful)
We could also stop buying diesel from Russia and slowing down Ukraine's starlink speeds.
What would Trump be doing differently if he was a Russian asset?
Re:We really should stop jerking Ukraine around (Score:5, Insightful)
Honestly, European defense is pretty screwed if Ukraine falls. We'd be losing a million-man veteran force with the experience in the most modern warfare on the planet, and instead Russia gaining their entire defense industry, as well as seizing their land, economy, and propagandizing to their kids and preparing to draft them into its own military - to turn all of that against other states in eastern Europe.
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Honestly, European defense is pretty screwed if Ukraine falls. We'd be losing a million-man veteran force with the experience in the most modern warfare on the planet, and instead Russia gaining their entire defense industry, as well as seizing their land, economy, and propagandizing to their kids and preparing to draft them into its own military - to turn all of that against other states in eastern Europe.
And why would Trump/America care?
Sounds like a good opportunity to sell more weapons to the Europeans.
Maybe if the Europeans don't want to be overrun by Russia. They should stop supporting it with all that cash from trading with them.
If the Europeans themselves don't care...
Same as with the leftist Muslim invasions. One country will have to fall before the rest of you wake up and start to defend yourselves. Let's hope some of them can do it in time and Europe can be Europe again sometime in the hopefull
Re:We really should stop jerking Ukraine around (Score:5, Informative)
When America lost 3000 people on 9/11 and called for aid, Europe stood up. Denmark lost more people per capita, fighting in an overseas war that was not their own, than America did, all to support their ally. And now that Europe is under threat, in the largest war on the continent since WWII, with a good chunk of a million people dead and city after city laid to waste? You not only don't help, you not only cut off things that cost you literally nothing, you outright threaten to invade Denmark, you fucking traitrous assholes. They were having to rush explosives and bags of blood to Greenland to prepare for fights against you.
Russia was one of Europe's largest trading partners in 2021. Today it's in 19th place. Trade with Russia has collapsed, but it is not nonexistent The biggest problem we face is that Europe is not a dictatorship; every country has a veto over collective action. And there have been a couple pro-Russian leaders - until recently led by Orban, but still with Fico and now Babic - who basically screamed until they were blue in the face any time there was a threat of cutting off the Russian fuel that they had bet their energy systems on, and won carveouts in order to get other Ukraine legislation passed. A couple other countries fought on LNG and won a reprieve until early 2026 to cut off short-term contracts and late 2026 for a full LNG cutoff. There are a couple other holes of relevant but financially-small magnitude.
The supporters of these policies (prominently led by Scholz, until his replacement by Merz) argued that we can't support Ukraine if we shoot our economies in the foot, that it's better to not phase out trade with Russia too quickly if it will hurt our economies enough that we can't support Ukraine. And my view is, frankly, that's bullshit. Russia is an economic pygmy compared to Europe. Even if something hurts us several times more than it hurts Russia, proportionally, it hurts Russia far more. I want to see a complete shutdown of all trade with Russia, and strict, adaptive third-party sanctions on any country or entity that tries to launder trade through them (down to the level of isotopic and chemical fingerprinting of hydrocarbons). And frankly I've been furious that we followed Merkel's "Wandel durch Handel" policy after 2014 when Russia had already shown its colours, with a whole "LA LA LA, I CAN'T HEAR YOU, EVERYTHING WILL WORK OUT FINE!" polyannaism. But you can't roll back to 2014, and we can't substitute a reality in which Europe is united under a single system (like the US is) is for the actual reality where every single country has a veto in the EU. In the Spring 2026 Eurobarometer poll, 76% of Europeans agreed that the EU should keep supporting Ukraine until "a just and lasting peace", and 76% also viewed Russia's invasion as a direct threat to EU security. If we were a single united country, there would be no ambiguity.
In the meantime, Europe nearly alone is bankrolling Ukraine's defense.
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It took you 2 1/2 centuries to get as centralized as you are. We're still in our "Articles of Confederation" phase, and being just as crippled in crises by it as you were under your Articles of Confederation.
That doesn't mean "give up and die"; it means "work to try to get the extremely high level of agreement needed to unite better (nations, like the early US states, are loathe to give up any sovereignty), while simultaneously doing the best we can with the system that we
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The question was not why should America care, but why would America care.
There's a good chance they simply won't. America has not had a great record of being a reliable ally over the years.
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Russia is an economic pygmy compared to Europe. Even if something hurts us several times more than it hurts Russia, proportionally, it hurts Russia far more.
That does not follow. Germany especially is an export-oriented economy that relies on cheap energy to be profitable. It competes directly with asian countries that have far lower costs. You might not grasp the magnitude: Gas was 2.5 cents per kWh a decade ago. It jumped to 30 and more after Ukraine, USA or a combination of both blew up North Stream 2. Granted, it came down again, but it's still over 6 cents today. (exact numbers depend on your market, location, yada yada )
Russia is suffering a slow-burning
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They should stop supporting it with all that cash from trading with them.
Who should we support? Ironically Russia wants to sell us product, whereas America just threatened to cut off diesel and LNG supplies.
At least Russia was a reliable trading partner not run by someone pretending not to be a dictator.
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At least Russia was a reliable trading partner not run by someone pretending not to be a dictator.
Vlad wasn't pretending not to be one, which is why trading with Russia was obviously funding Europe's demise. This isn't really different from doing business with the USA, but get real, Europe paid for Russia to invade its neighbors.
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The European defenses were pretty lousy anyway and even German generals stated that they won't last more that 3 days against any army.
That is what you get when more attention is given to inclusiveness training rather than weapons training and billions are spend on outdated US arms.
How many drones can one buy for the price of an F35 that needs 2 days of servicing after a few hours of flight?
Re:We really should stop jerking Ukraine around (Score:4, Insightful)
Russia's army also took a beating AND would be needed to keep control of Ukraine, half of which (the western parts) are intensely anti-russian. Controlling an occupied territory can be as demanding if not more than conquering it.
Putin has the Epstein files (Score:2)
So we can't stop jerking Ukraine around until voters stop voting Republican. And voters don't seem terribly inclined to do that because trans girls in sports or violent video games or heavy metal records played backwards or furries or whatever the fuck is scaring the shit out of Grandpa and Grandma this week. I honestly don't know.
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It's pretty sad when Trump is the improvement, but that's how far America has fallen along the reliable partner scale.
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Biden was not worse. He did not allow to strike deeper than 300 km into russia with american weapons, that's all. The ban is still in place, domestic weapons are used for deeper strikes. Also forbiding donating jets, helicopters and tanks is bullshit, Ukraine received all of these while Biden was still president. Trump, on the other hand, blocks weapons and ammunition, even though the EU has paid for them. The orange shitgibbon is putler's tool.
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Ukraine has even been involved in training exercises with NATO troops. Their drone battalions have been regularly wiping out American and British infantry units in exercises, because the Americans and British just don't understand how to fight a war with drones in.
Some day (Score:4, Insightful)
At this rate, some day soon the injured soldier will just punch a button on his phone or radio and a fully automated drone will come and get him.
Until another drone or SHORAD downs his ride. (Score:2)
Everything that flies is vulnerable.
Not sure if it's the first (Score:3)
I saw the published video feed of the downed F-15 crew rescue from Iran. They claimed it was using a MH-6 "Little Bird" helicopter. But in spite of the aerial surveillance image of the craft being blurred out (they showed the rest of the image clearly, just not the aircraft) it had a distinct cross form. Little Bird is six bladed. And everyone knows what they look like anyway (see Wikipedia), so why bother.
The cross image was not moving (doubt they'd wait for rotors to stop completely if they were in a hurry). So I surmised that it might be a heavy duty quad copter. Electric, so very quiet and not as easily revealed by its sound. And it only needed to travel a few miles back to the transport aircraft landing point.
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if you mean this video: https://www.indiatoday.in/worl... [indiatoday.in]
6 blurred blades can be seen at the end, in any case it's not a cross form. it might have been ofc something different. however, iirc several little birds were destroyed in that same operation, along with the transport planes that got them there.
The future of warfare (Score:3)
I was surprised to see this here. Didn't think anyone cared about an overgrown (mostly) remote control drone performing casevac.
Would have much preferred to see an article speaking of how agent Krasnov just shut down intelligence sharing of Russian ballistic missile attacks that have already cost civilian lives. Or how at this very second the US regime continues to actively interfere with Ukrainian defensive systems designed to counter jet powered drones.
"Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets" ~Don Jr
"We have all the funding we need out of Russia" ~Eric Trump
Hardly "overgrown", that payload weight is common. (Score:3)
For example some DJI ag drones can carry 100kg payloads and are cheaper than many used cars.
https://ag.dji.com/t100 [dji.com]
My turn! My turn! (Score:1)
That's cheap these days. (Score:2)
The tech is not exotic. DJI Agras T100 will carry 220lbs max payload at the price of a used car. A complete ag drone with spray system is only about forty thousand bucks and could be bought with a small business loan if you want to make it pay for itself then ride it for fun after dismounting the spray rig.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts... [youtube.com]
Of course use to carry you is at your own risk, just like parasailing etc.