Ukraine tests StarGate drone to evacuate wounded soldiers from the front line

Ukrainian defence technology company SkyFall has built a new unmanned aerial vehicle called StarGate, which is currently being tested. Its main purpose is to evacuate wounded soldiers from dangerous front-line zones during Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine. The aircraft has six rotors.

The design targets a weakness of ground evacuation robots. Because of minefields, mud and active enemy drone activity, such robots can need as long as two to three hours to cover comparable distances. For a wounded soldier, that means a long wait for medical care.

SkyFall argues that an aerial drone can shorten this critical period, since it does not have to cross mined and difficult terrain. The source text available for this article breaks off at that point, so details such as StarGate's speed, payload capacity and test results are not known.

Speed of evacuation is often decisive for the survival of the wounded at the front. Unmanned solutions that reduce the exposure of soldiers and medical staff to danger are therefore one area of defence technology development.