Drones that evacuate the wounded
On 28 October 2026 the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine said that in October the Armed Forces had for the first time evacuated a wounded soldier by a heavy drone, and that later assault troops of the CODE 9.2 regiment twice carried out seriously wounded in one week on a drone called Stargate. By the ministry's account that drone returned under enemy electronic warfare navigating only by AI-based navigation. The ministry itself calls the direction "first in the world".
Why it matters
Drones that carry people out rather than cargo are a new kind of use that Brave1 and the military have developed since a 2024 request: 130 kg over 15 km and at least three links against jamming. In this record AI does the navigation without GPS: in full jamming, by the ministry's account, the drone plots its own route and returns to a safe zone. It is a statement by the ministry about its own work; the page gives no independent confirmation, no days for the single flights and no name for Stargate's maker.
What the page says. The Ministry of Defence page of 28 October 2026 (13:25): an infantryman of the 30th mechanised brigade was taken out of a position blocked by the enemy by the hexacopter "Heavy Shot Ayudag-6" from a Brave1 participant, a 98 kg machine with a 130 kg payload that flew over 15 km one way on the mission; preparation took months and drew on the experience of the ground-robot company of the 92nd brigade; equipment was dropped to the soldier beforehand and he attached himself to the winch; neighbouring units raised their bombers to draw off enemy anti-air drones. Then: "recently" a Ukrainian company, a Brave1 participant, presented the Stargate complex, "the first drone designed specially for evacuation at the request of assault troops": it deploys in 10 minutes, carries 150 kg, flies up to 105 km/h and has a medical module with a stretcher; AI-based software lets it, if navigation is completely jammed, plot a route itself and return to a safe zone. Assault troops of the CODE 9.2 regiment made two air evacuations of seriously wounded soldiers with it in one week from the "grey zone" 5 km from the border with Russia; the drone flew almost 30 km one way and returned with the wounded under enemy electronic warfare, navigating purely by AI navigation; heavy strike drones covered the operation. The 2024 requirement from Brave1 and the military: 130 kg over a distance from 15 km, an integrated link of at least three alternative types; optionally lidar, optical stabilisation and GPS-free navigation. What the record does not claim. "First in the world" is the ministry's phrase and no other source was read. The page names no day for any flight (the introduction says "this year", the body "in October"; Stargate "recently"), does not name Stargate's maker and gives no performance figures for the AI navigation beyond the case described. Whether the GPS-free navigation works equally well outside jamming conditions is not claimed.