Zipline's fixed-wing drones deliver medical supplies farther distances than a quadricopter can. A partnership with the Department of Defense that includes recent testing in Australia could bring this technology to the battlefield.

In an emergency medical situation, timing can be the difference between life and death. In areas where delivering essential medical supplies can be difficult, the Department of Defense is looking for better options. A just-completed series of military exercises tested whether drones provide a solution.

Drone company Zipline partnered with the DoD and Naval Medical Research Center to deploy its drones during four multinational military forces exercises in Australia between July 30 and Sept. 5. Zipline made more than 400 deliveries, including mock blood resupplies to shock trauma platoons.

Zipline CEO Keller Rinaudo said the Department of Defense's innovation unit came to the drone company because of its success transporting medical supplies in Rwanda and Ghana. Their shared goal of delivering critical medical supplies in a more efficient manner was the driving force behind the team-up.

The company's drones are particularly good for delivering these supplies because of the added range from their fixed wing design. Unlike quadrocopter drones, Zipline's drones look like a miniature plane, and are launched from a catapult of sorts.

That design was first put to the test by the DoD in a 79-mile round trip delivery flight at an average speed of 64 miles per hour, the longest drone delivery in U.S. history, which was conducted in Oct. 2018, before the military exercises in Australia.

Zipline announced its partnership with the Department of Defense on Tuesday.

The Zipline drones were required to simultaneously respond to emergency delivery requests from three different locations simulating mass-casualty events, and deliver 150 lbs of cargo in under three hours. The drones were also tested in extreme conditions, like 30 mile-per-hour winds, hard rain, darkness, zero-visibility fog and artillery fire.

One factor the drones are not expected to face is anti-aircraft fire.

"These vehicles are flying 60 to 70 mph and 400 to 500 feet in the air, and we won't be operating in a context where someone will have anti-aircraft weaponry," Rinaudo said. "The shell would cost more than the plane."