Khartiia ground drone evacuates wounded soldier 12 km from the front line

The 13th Khartiia Brigade of the National Guard of Ukraine performed a successful operation to evacuate a wounded soldier using a ground-based robotic system, delivering the soldier to safety 12 kilometers from the front line.

The brigade’s press service released footage of the evacuation.

A joint operation by a UGV brigade unit and an operational support battalion took place in Khartiia’s area of responsibility north of Kharkiv.

The Tarhan wheeled robotic system evacuated a wounded soldier from zero to 12 kilometers from the front line, covering a distance of 24 kilometers.

The UGV was chosen to evacuate the infantryman because it was impossible to use conventional equipment near the battlefield. The positions of both sides on the battlefield are often cut off from support for many kilometers due to the constant presence of strike FPV drones in the sky.

“In my opinion, and in the opinion of many colleagues, the evacuation of wounded soldiers by ground robots is now a last resort. That is, if there are no other safer options for picking up the wounded, then a ground robot must go. This is still not the highest level of reliability. Every time such a mission is carried out, everyone is extremely tense,“ Mathematician, head of the UGV department of the Khartiia brigade, shared.

During such operations, the wounded are extremely vulnerable. The video shows that the soldier’s comrades covered him with an “armor blanket” and did not remove his body armor or helmet in order to protect him as much as possible from possible debris.

Another problem with this evacuation method is the immaturity of the technology and the imperfect tactics for using such systems.

“In my opinion, robotic systems are like FPV drones in 2023, but much more complex,” says Mathematician, adding that current systems are not fully capable of performing medical evacuation tasks. “Such a vehicle should be a separate vehicle, not a regular logistics vehicle. It has more technical requirements and must be seriously prepared,” he said.

However, despite all the shortcomings, ground-based robotic systems are already significantly increasing the chances of survival for military personnel and enhancing the combat capabilities of troops.

“Every robot on the battlefield is a life potentially saved. In this case, it is not only the life of our wounded soldier that is saved, but also that of the entire evacuation team, whose work in the danger zone was performed by a ground-based robotic system. Khartiia is actively developing the UGV direction, and our task is to maximize the use of robots in logistics and evacuation. In these areas, they should eventually completely replace humans,” Colonel Maksym Golubok, commander of the 13th Brigade of the National Guard of Ukraine, comments.

Khartiia is one of the most advanced units of the Defense Forces in the use of UGVs. At the end of 2024, the brigade conducted its first fully robotic combat operation without human involvement. For more details on the specifics of their use and implementation in the military, read the special article, in which Militarnyi spoke with the brigade’s operators.