Flying Ambulance Anyone?

From Wired, several defense contractors are beginning development of a concept of a Medical Evacuation(Med-Evac) system that relies on unmanned robots or UAV’s to do the hazardous task of evacuating and taking wounded soldiers out of the hot zone in times of conflict. The Israeli experience when they went to war with Hezbollah a few months back left them with 119 soldiers killed on the battlefield simply because they couldn’t be taken out of the hot zone within the Golden Hour when their rates of survival was at the highest. The concept picks up on the ideal that a fleet or these flying drones would be deployed in a rear position directly behind the fighting force ready to pick-up any injured or wounded soldiers taking them back to the mother ship or controller for proper medical treatment and evacuation to a proper medical facility or hospital.
The idea they have picked upon is based on the concept flying car researched and developed by Moller Industries that has failed to catch on. Its use on the battlefield may provide a first practical use of the concept vehicle that has led to many experimental Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL) vehicles for various applications such as surveillance and defense. The use of autonomous vehicles allows generals to send in help without risking more lives of pilots and of course the aircraft they fly. Robots are good at things we humans take for granted, repetitive tasks that does not strain them or affect them emotionally. They have been conceived to have some treatment capabilities that are quite difficult for in that area, the combination of logic and experience is the main advantage of human beings. Imagine a fleet of these medical evacuation robots that are robust and virtually impossible to bring down taking soldiers to rear positio0ns where they are stabilized and taken to medical facilities in less than an hour improving survival rates by as much as 90%, that would be a dream come true for the soldiers and their officials for less lives lost for the same old battles they fight.

Posted by Nick at 12:07 pm under General