Soldiers of the 475th Assault Regiment evacuated two wounded comrades from battlefield using new StarGate drone. VIDEO
Soldiers of the 475th Separate Assault Regiment CODE 9.2 carried out two battlefield evacuations of severely wounded soldiers from neighboring units within a week, using the StarGate aerial evacuation drone.
The regiment reported this on Facebook, according to Censor.NET.
Evacuation details
According to the regiment, the rescued soldiers were 25-year-old Yevhen, call sign "Izium", and 24-year-old Artem, call sign "Kolobok". Both had sustained severe limb injuries and were at positions in the gray zone, approximately five kilometers from the Russian border.
Difficult terrain, water obstacles and the threat of Russian FPV drones made ground evacuation impossible, leaving aerial evacuation as the only available option.
How it happened
Over the course of a week, CODE 9.2 servicemen planned, prepared, and carried out two complex evacuation missions. A team from SkyFall, the developer and manufacturer of StarGate, also took part.
According to the soldiers, the operations required coordination among several units, additional personnel and assets, and covering fire. Heavy Vampire strike drones were among the assets used to suppress Russian positions.
During one mission, StarGate flew nearly 30 kilometers to the wounded soldier’s position and approximately the same distance back, with the soldier on board.
Russian forces were actively using electronic warfare systems in the area of the operation and attempting to completely jam satellite navigation signals. Despite this, the regiment said, an AI-based navigation system and the pilots’ skill enabled the flight to proceed without GPS and the mission to be completed successfully.
Oleksandr Nastenko ("Flint"), commander of the 475th Separate Assault Regiment CODE 9.2, said the next task was to use the experience gained to train crews and make such missions routine.
"Going forward, we plan to amend our regiment’s organizational structure and establish a dedicated air evacuation section within the medical company. It will specialize specifically in evacuating the wounded from the battlefield by air," the commander stressed.
More about the StarGate drone
- According to its developer, StarGate is Ukraine’s first dedicated unmanned aerial platform for battlefield casualty evacuation (CASEVAC).
- It was developed at the military’s request for situations in which ground transport cannot reach a wounded soldier or doing so is too dangerous. The drone can carry up to 150 kilograms and reach speeds of up to 105 km/h.
- The evacuation module is equipped with a medical stretcher. According to the developers, its onboard AI, navigation, and communications redundancy systems allow it to continue a mission even when GPS is jammed and communications are lost.
Previously, the Ukrainian army carried out the first-ever evacuation of a wounded soldier from the front line using an aerial drone.
