The US Army trained with unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) for medical evacuation during Project Flytrap in Pabradė, Lithuania, on May 4, 2026.
The training was conducted by soldiers from the 2nd Squadron, 2nd Cavalry Regiment, who practiced casualty evacuation using the UNEX unmanned ground vehicle, as reported by Defence Blog, citing an official statement from the US Army.
The exercise, which runs from April 27 to May 31, integrates counter-drone systems, AI-enabled command and control, and live data networks alongside robotic platforms, with the goal of helping soldiers move faster, make decisions more quickly, and fight more effectively across all domains.
The UNEX, built by ABRIS DG, is a fully electric amphibious UGV designed in Ukraine for high-risk operations beyond conventional routes, carrying a payload capacity of up to 1,700 kilograms and capable of handling obstacles up to one meter high.
Casualty evacuation using robots addresses one of the most dangerous missions in ground combat: removing wounded soldiers from the battlefield and taking them to a medical unit. A human-crewed medical evacuation vehicle approaching a casualty while under observation by enemy drones becomes an easy target for enemy fire.
By contrast, an unmanned ground vehicle that can navigate to a wounded soldier, load the casualty, and return to a treatment point without exposing additional personnel to direct fire fundamentally changes the risk calculation for evacuation in a drone-saturated environment.
Photo: UNEX. This content was created with the help of AI and reviewed by the editorial team.
