CODE 9.2 fighters evacuate two wounded soldiers with SkyFall’s StarGate aerial casevac drone

Servicemen of the 475th Separate Assault Regiment CODE 9.2 evacuated two wounded soldiers from the battlefield within a week using the StarGate unmanned aerial casevac drone. The unit reported this on its Facebook page.

CODE 9.2 says ground transport could not reach the wounded soldiers’ positions because of difficult terrain, water obstacles and the threat of enemy FPV drones. Over the week, CODE 9.2 servicemen planned, prepared, and successfully carried out two complex evacuation missions. The SkyFall team, developer and manufacturer of the StarGate casevac drone, joined them in the preparation and execution.

The rescued soldiers are 25-year-old Yevhen, callsign “Izyum”, and 24-year-old Artem, callsign “Kolobok”. Both suffered serious limb injuries and were at positions in the grey zone, about five kilometres from the state border with Russia. Air evacuation was the only way left to get them to medics.

On one mission, StarGate flew almost 30 km to the soldier’s position and the same distance back, this time with the soldier on board. The unit says the enemy was actively using electronic warfare in the area of the operation, trying to completely suppress GPS. “Despite this, thanks to the onboard AI-based navigation system and the skill of the pilots, we managed to keep the drone flying without satellite navigation and complete the evacuation mission successfully,” the press release says.

According to CODE 9.2 commander of the 475th Regiment Oleksandr Nastenko, callsign “Flint”, the next task is to use the experience gained to train crews and make such missions a systematic practice.

“In future, we plan to amend our regiment’s table of organisation and create a separate air ambulance section within the medical company. It will specialise directly in evacuating the wounded from the battlefield by air,” the commander stressed.

On 19 October, Defender Media reported that Ukrainian troops had carried out the “world’s first air evacuation from the front line” using the Ayudag-6 drone.