The international delegation, headed by Ana Lucía Bueno, ICRC Public Health Coordinator, and Sujit Panda, Head of the Physical Rehabilitation…
Operators of the ground robotic systems (GRS) “Uptown” and “Dexter” from the “NOVA” unit shared the story of a unique mission, when the evacuation of a everely wounded infantryman went so smoothly and quickly that the soldiers compared it to the intervention of “higher powers.”
This was reported in a feature published on the page of the 3rd Separate Assault Brigade.
“War has changed a lot now. The logistics delivery zone has become extremely dangerous for personnel. And that’s why we appeared. Where a driver cannot reach, a robot does the work”, — the soldiers explain.
They recall one of the missions, when, during the delivery of supplies, they received an order to evacuate a wounded soldier.
“Immediately the thoughts: damn, but how? What? What if the connection fails again? And time? God forbid something goes wrong?” — “Uptown” recalls.
But this time everything was different.
“I don’t know, maybe some higher powers or what. The connection was perfect, the picture was perfect. Everything along the route went as well as it possibly could. Fast, like riding with the wind”, — he says.
The wounded man was unable to walk, but managed to get into the evacuation capsule of the robot on his own.
“We drove up as close as possible. Somehow he pulled himself together and got into the vehicle by himself”, — the operators recount.
The crew emphasizes that their work is about constant improvement.
“Every month we get better: someone proposes a new solution, we test it. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, but with every mission things get better and better”, — the soldiers say.
They are convinced these skills will be useful even after the war.
“This is very interesting work, and I think it will also come in handy in civilian life”, — “Dexter” sums up.
But most importantly, the operators stress, are the lives saved.
“We can extract soldiers when it’s too dangerous for a human to take the risk.”
