A group of Israeli technology and defense firms are working on what could become the world's first robotic aircraft for evacuating, and even treating, soldiers injured on the battlefield. Let's just hope the technology is a little slicker than the concept art (right).

Israel's Fisher Institute for

Air and Space Strategic Studies is working with local techies and arms-makers to build "MedUAV," a combination of ducted-fan flying drone and robotic ambulance. According to *Defense News' *Barbara Opall-Rome, the Institute is hoping – hoping – to start test flights in 24 months. Eventually, the idea is to carry up to four passengers at speeds of 150 knots and heights of up to 10,000 feet.

(If the whole thing looks retro-futuro familiar, that's because Urban Aeronautics, makers of this concept drone, is one of the companies behind the robo-medevac.)

Six of the 119 soldiers killed in Israel's

33-day war with Hezbollah might have survived, if the Israeli Defense Forces "had been able to evacuate casualties within the so-called 'golden hour,' when their chances for recovery were relatively high. But because the IDF could not thoroughly cleanse urban areas of hidden terrorists and concealed rocket-launching squads, the Israel Air Force often could not dispatch medical evacuation helicopters upon demand," *Defense News *notes.

The Fisher Institute's concept is to put together a relatively simple UAV, or unmanned aerial vehicle, at first – and then follow with something that can also drive around a battlefield, picking up the wounded. The flying car becomes a robotic ambulance, in other words.

Program officials here said fast track MedUAVs will be operated in multiple modes, depending on the danger. "The problem is that if you have one critically injured patient in the middle of a village, you have to risk the lives of at least three others to go in and evacuate," [the Institute's Eran] Schenker said.

Historically, according to the IDF medical specialist, some 40 percent of paramedics and first responders are injured or killed en route to saving patients. To drive down those statistics, the MedUAV will operate in conventional modes

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with pilot, medic and assisting crew member to the outer extent of the designated secure zone. The aircraft will then land, discharge all but a single medic, and fly the rest of the way to a forward evacuation point by remote control... The autonomous landing, uploading of the patient and takeoff will take no more than 45 seconds, according to

Fisher Institute officials. In very dangerous environments, the fast-tracked MedUAV could be operated completely by remote control, with a doctor sitting at a faraway command trailer alongside the remote vehicle operator. While the pilot operates the air vehicle, the doctor will use sensors and video and voice communications to interact with the patient.

Next year, Darpa, the American military's way-out research arm, is looking to start work on a robotic ambulance-in-the-sky of its own. But the agency knows it won't be easy. Technical challenges include "intelligent autonomous flight behavior, sensor integrated guidance and control to enable flight in complex terrain, fully autonomous selection...of suitable landing locations, dual mode

(ground and flight) propulsion, collaboration/coordination with human combat medics and safe and rapid autonomous launch and return to advanced medical facilities."

In short, way more than just concept art.