Ukraine’s Sirko-S1 ground logistics drone is not only delivering ammunition and supplies to troops: recent footage from the battlefield shows the drone evacuating a wounded soldier from the front lines.
The Sirko-S1 is an unmanned ground vehicle with independent electric hub motors attached to each of its four wheels. It has a modular design meant to accommodate a variety of potential loadouts, including infrared imagers to support intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance operations which are made possible by its extremely low acoustic signature.
The drone can also perform demining operations when equipped with an add-on demining system.
Sirko-S1 uses a three-kilometer, encrypted line-of-sight control system that can be extended past 10 kilometers with the use of repeaters, allowing it to deliver up to 440 pounds of ammunition, food, medical supplies, and more at speeds of up to 14 kilometers per hour, or 8.5 miles per hour.
Thanks to its tubeless, puncture-resistant, off-road tires and electric motors on each wheel, the Sirko-S1 can navigate very rough terrain for upwards of three hours on a single charge. Alternatively, it can be left in standby mode for up to two weeks waiting until it is needed in the fight.
Ukraine has reportedly been using drones of different types for battlefield evacuations since 2023, but this 1.5-minute-long video released by Ukraine offers our best view yet into how these systems are being employed on the battlefield.
According to reports, this Sirko ground drone was on a return trip after delivering ammunition, food and medical supplies to front-line troops when it ran across soldiers from a different Ukrainian unit, one of whom was wounded. The drone’s operator was then able to call out to the troops using the platform’s onboard speakers and microphone system, asking if they needed help.
Before long, his team had loaded the wounded soldier onto the ground drone. The drone then commenced a 20-minute sprint at its maximum speed to get the soldier away from the front lines and back to where he could receive further treatment.
Sikro-S1 is developed by the Ukrainian company SkyLab UA. It’s being deployed across the whole frontline, according to the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine.
Ukraine’s has developed a robust drone industry and the expertise of Ukrainian drone operators is widely hailed.
Feature Image: The Sirko-S1 drone. (Defense Blog via Skylab UA)
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