The Ministry of Defense of Ukraine said that stretchers mounted on small tracks can carry up to 150 kg over rough terrain. Photo: Armyinform.com.ua < p>The mechanical remote-controlled stretcher, invented by the toy designer and raised through crowdfunding, is now evacuating wounded Ukrainian soldiers from the front line.
The Ministry of Defense of Ukraine said that the stretcher installed on small tracks, can carry up to 150 kg over rough terrain, and its controller can safely operate them at a distance of 100 meters.
He quotes a Ukrainian military medic. stating that mechanical stretchers made it much safer to evacuate wounded soldiers under fire.
“You can’t carry anything quickly when everything around you is exploding,” a soldier identified by the call sign Kilm told Armyinform.com.ua, describing that the evacuation using a portable stretcher proceeded at a speed of about one mile per hour.
The main advantage of a mechanical stretcher is that the evacuation team is reduced to two or three people instead of seven. Photo: Armyinform.com.ua
Fierce fighting rages on the front lines as a Ukrainian counteroffensive tries to break through acres of Russian minefields. Casualties have been heavy, and analysts say Ukraine now has more amputees than Britain at the end of World War II.
Kilm said that after one close miss during a stretcher evacuation, he called his friend-inventor.
“It turned out that he used to make toy radio-controlled tanks for children. Now he has refocused and improved our stretcher,” he said. “Volunteers paid 70,000 hryvnia [£1,500] and we got the stretcher in two weeks.”
Ukrainian remote-controlled drone
The main advantage of mechanical stretchers is that the evacuation team is downsizing. two or three men, not seven.
A Ukrainian intelligence officer with the call sign Kamaz explained that one soldier walks 50m ahead of the mechanical stretcher when they evacuate a wounded soldier, and the dispatcher walks 50m behind.
“It is much more difficult for enemy intelligence to detect these stretcher groups, and if they notice, they are unlikely to fire artillery shells at one person at a time, because they do not have enough shells,” he said.
Plans to buy more
The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense has said that the mechanical stretcher is already in use by its 125th Territorial Defense Brigade on the eastern front line and that there are plans to purchase more.
It is also reported that the stretcher can be adapted to carry ammunition and water to the front line .
During the 18 months of the war in Ukraine, countless innovations related to drones appeared.
Civilian drones have been adapted to drop hand grenades into trenches and detect enemies, and naval drones moved from short-range defensive functions to striking targets hundreds of miles across the Black Sea.
Ukraine is not the only country developing drones to transport wounded soldiers to safety.
Arms manufacturer BAE Systems is also developing a prototype mechanical stretcher for the British Army called the Ironclad. iron warships used during the American Civil War of 1861-1865, when naval warfare moved away from traditional tall wooden ships in a major technological shift in warfare.
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