At first, it’s kind of charming. Look how well the Swiss treat their cows! A helicopter is dispatched just to carry an injured bovine stuck in the mountains! It’s not an uncommon sight in the Alps, either: in Switzerland, insurance that covers helicopter evacuation for your family also includes your cows.
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Combat is a grizzly business, and despite the best efforts of medical evacuation crews, it’s not always feasible to send rescue teams into the fray. The US Army is seeking to address this with “autonomous vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) unmanned aircraft systems (UAS)” (read: drones) for dropping off medical supplies and picking up injured troops. In its latest request for research and development proposals, the Army calls not for new tools, but for the repurposing of current aircraft to do the job. Preferred candidates in the already unmanned class include the A160 Hummingbird and the K-MAX, while one of the suggestions for remote-control modification is the infamous Black Hawk. Makes the AR.Drone seem a little wimpy, doesn’t it?
Filed under: Robots, Transportation
Army seeking proposals for casualty-carrying UAVs originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 05 Aug 2012 14:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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