Ukrainian military flies wounded infantryman out of enemy territory using a heavy-lift hexacopter

Ukrainian forces have executed what they claim is the world's first aerial drone rescue of an injured soldier. On October 19, the military published footage showing an infantryman, identified by his callsign Kostya, being airlifted from a heavily mined front line on the eastern Kharkiv front. Soldiers from the 92nd Assault Brigade and the 30th Mechanized Brigade carried out the extraction after land-based options proved impossible due to minefields and enemy kamikaze drones. [2][3]

The evacuation utilized a six-rotor Gurzuf Defence hexacopter rated to lift up to 130 kilograms. Kostya, who weighs roughly 80 kilograms, secured himself into a harness suspended underneath the aircraft before being flown back to safety over a distance cited between 8 and 18 kilometers. A drone operator going by the callsign Black maintained continuous contact with the soldier throughout the flight, while an escort fleet of support and anti-drone UAVs provided security overhead. [2][3]

The operation marks an unprecedented practical leap in casualty extraction, surpassing decades of theoretical research and testing by international militaries. Napalm, a military programmer with the 92nd Brigade's unmanned systems company, hailed the milestone as the beginning of systematic efforts to turn airborne drone evacuations into a standard frontline capability. [2][3]