Ukraine's StarGate Drone Has Already Flown Six Wounded Soldiers Out of the Combat Zone

Ukraine's 475th Separate Assault Regiment, known as Code 9.2, has flown six wounded soldiers out of the combat zone since late October using the StarGate, a six-rotor stretcher drone made by the company SkyFall. The figure is SkyFall's own count. The regiment is now setting up platoons specialised in drone evacuations, as ground vehicles often cannot reach the wounded.

Faster preparation

The regiment's pilot, call sign KVN, says the first rescue took seven days to prepare, while a similar mission two weeks later came together in 12 hours. He now needs four or five phone calls to arrange the escort drones and partner battalions. KVN, 33, spent his first two years as a strike-drone pilot and has flown four StarGate missions so far; the latest lasted an hour and a half.

The regiment reported its first two rescues on October 26. Two soldiers with severe limb wounds were lifted from gray-zone positions about 5 kilometers (3 miles) from the Russian border, out of reach of ground vehicles. The third, a 54-year-old with the call sign Donbas, stepped on a mine on September 2 and waited 57 days at a position 2 kilometers from the border. This week SkyFall told the outlet Militarnyi about the sixth: a soldier named Serhiy, hit in the arm and leg by an FPV drone, who could not move.

Range and support

Ukraine's defense ministry says one of the first flights covered 60 kilometers (37 miles), half of it with a wounded soldier aboard. The regiment says that was a round trip of nearly 30 kilometers each way, about double the 15 kilometers one way SkyFall cited in October. Russian jamming tried to disable GPS, and the regiment credits the drone's onboard AI navigation and its pilots' skill. The published accounts do not explain what made the longer flight possible.

No StarGate flies alone: SkyFall's Vampire strike drones hit Russian positions during the first two rescues. A SkyFall spokesperson said drone airlifts are not "a panacea" and that each evacuation carries its own risk. No figures have been published on aborted flights or lost aircraft.

Plans

Cherry, 28, who heads the regiment's medical service, says coordination between pilots and medics is being developed. SkyFall expects to build about 1,000 StarGates a month by the end of 2026; in October the price was given as $50,000 or more per system.