Too bad they don't have any AH-64s to work closely with them....
Germany’s new unmanned helicopter just flew for the first time
https://defence-blog.com/germanys-new-unmanned-helicopter-just-flew-for-the-first-time/
https://defence-blog.com/germanys-new-unmanned-helicopter-just-flew-for-the-first-time/
Too bad they don't have any AH-64s to work closely with them....
9 Comments
hydroxyl@freeradical.zone · 1 pts · 85d
@supersquirrel grim
supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz · 1 pts · 85d
I would consider UAVs designed specifically for medevac to be the opposite of grim.
You do realize that a medevac UAV designed for war can just as easily be used in lifesaving emergencies and natural disasters outside of war right? The same exact evolutionary trajectory happened with helicopters and it will happen with drones/UAVs.
This device and others like it will save countless people in desparate conditions that a medevac helicopter was not available in time for or could not get to.
edit In particular there are a vertigo inducing amount of rescue situations where a helicopter rescue is too dangerous and implausible for a helicopter to safely execute that leave rescue crews feeling helpless. Even still sometimes helicopter pilots push that envelope as far as they feel they can, but it only makes logical sense that there is a huge class of potential rescues that have a significant chance of working but also a significant chance of the rescue aircraft being lost in the process.
People may at first be uncomfortable with it, but when it comes down to it in a situation that professional rescue crews cannot physically do anything more because of environmental limitations an attempted rescue with a UAV that fails and ends up in the death of the victims is still far better in so many ways than the victims sitting on their hands and waiting to die, which in my view is possibly one of the most brutal experiences a human can be put through. This exact case has already happened many times on the battlefield in Ukraine and there are many Ukrainians alive today because a UGV could be sent into a dicey situation a manned ambulance or stretcher crew could not.
Further, in a situation like a mass flooding event in a dense urban area drones like these could be used to quickly distribute water, food, blankets and other lifesaving supplies potentially stabilizing a whole amount of emergency situations long enough for a helicopter or ground based rescue crew to get there. On the flight back they could take the most critically at risk person, (which are often children and thus are lighter), from a given situation. This could reduce deaths in the wake of a flood from a heatwave by thousands and thousands of people easily.
hydroxyl@freeradical.zone · 1 pts · 85d
@supersquirrel i am no fan of dual-use tech, sorry
supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz · 1 pts · 85d
I am no fan of people who are too small minded to understand technology can have many uses and that letting the ruling class decide to use a particular device for war and label it a weapon does not mean we are bound to use the technology for the same thing as well, and I am not sorry about it.
hydroxyl@freeradical.zone · 1 pts · 85d
@supersquirrel let me process the grim reality of normalization of dual use tech infiltrating our daily life in my small mindedness✌️ and you do you, keep up the good fight of reframing what the ruling class wants us to believe is a another war tech advance or not
supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz · 1 pts · 85d
Fair enough, we aren't really opposed though we may not agree.
Personally though the proliferation of cars as a dual use technology scares me way more. We treat cars like they aren't weapons and they slaughter thousands and thousands of people every year even though it is entirely possible to prevent it.
A drone is far easier to stop than a massive metal box hurtling along the ground that has been given legal and cultural priority to inhabit public spaces over human bodies to such a point that the obliteration of human bodies by these rolling anvils is entirely tolerated if it happens in public spaces that are even minimally intended for them.
hydroxyl@freeradical.zone · 2 pts · 85d
@supersquirrel i propose we abolish personal use cars as well, especially and primarily inside urban areas/living spaces #fuckcars :ablobblewobble: and if we have enough foresight we won't make the same mistake with drones as we did with ground killing vehicles, that's my honest take ✌️
supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz · 1 pts · 85d
In general the spread of unmanned vehicles into public spaces feels to me like an affront to public shared human spaces the same way electric scooter app companies feel with how they litter their inventory across sidewalks with no sense of the space and mobility limited people they displace.
On the other hand in a remote area where an organ needs to be moved to a healthcare facility quickly for a critical operation and no helicopter or airplane is available than a small fixed wing UAV is an incredibly humanizing robot.
It depends especially on our mindset as a general public about how we accept these things into our spaces and how we do not, I agree that we cannot make the same mistake we did with cars!