A Saronic Corsair speedboat drone traverses the ocean in this undated photo. A Corsair drone was sent to rescue two Army pilots who survived an Iranian attack on their AH-64 Apache helicopter on Monday. (Saronic Technologies)
A speedboat drone that helped rescue two U.S. service members this week marked a milestone for a Navy task force that has spent five years experimenting with crewless vessels in the Middle East, offering a glimpse of how robotics will transform future rescue missions.
The two rescued crew members were retrieved some two hours after their Apache helicopter went down Monday near the Strait of Hormuz, U.S. Central Command said Tuesday.
A U.S. Navy Corsair drone boat was dispatched to the scene, where it picked up the personnel and carried them to another location where they were then hoisted onto a helicopter for onward movement, officials said.
U.S. officials say the operation marked the first time the Navy successfully used an unmanned vessel to carry out a rescue at sea. The mission also demonstrated how drones and robotic systems, long used primarily for surveillance and combat operations, could take on a growing role in rescuing and recovering personnel.
The mission was conducted by the U.S. 5th Fleet’s Task Force 59, based out of Bahrain, which was formed five years ago to boost Navy efforts to monitor Iranian vessels and other ships transiting the region.
The task force has used a variety of systems to sail across waters in the Middle East. Corsairs, which can carry up to 1,000 pounds and travel around 1,000 miles, are among the recent additions to the task force’s fleet.
The multi-purpose vessels can do everything from reconnaissance and maritime domain awareness operations to search and rescue.
The Navy’s approach follows the lead of Ukraine, which has put drones and robotics to innovative use during its war with Russia.
Small and affordable drones have been used by Ukraine to penetrate deep into Russian territory, destroying everything from energy production infrastructure to multimillion dollar long-range bombers.
Meanwhile, persistent Russian drone surveillance inside Ukraine has made rescue operations exceedingly dangerous. To operate under those conditions, Ukrainian forces have developed armored robotic vehicles to extract injured troops. In some cases, the vehicles have survived mine blasts and drone attacks while getting soldiers to safety.
Like the Navy, the U.S. Army has been experimenting with unmanned systems that could factor in future conflicts.
Much of the Army’s training and testing has centered on using drones to do reconnaissance, launch attacks and defend forward based forces. But military planners are also exploring how unmanned systems could help move supplies — including blood bags and other lifesaving medical equipment— to assist the recovery and treatment of wounded troops.
Last month, a drone was used to carry a test dummy strapped onto Flowcopter’s FC-100 aircraft during an exercise involving the Vilseck, Germany-based 2nd Cavalry Regiment. Such systems would likely play a role in a future battlefield where contested airspace would put manned air crews at great risk.
Still, there likely will be limits to their utility in rescue missions. For example, in cases with severe injuries and no support personnel on hand, robotics would have limited value without medics. Some rescues also may require substantial forces to secure an area and protect those being recovered.
The conflict with Iran has highlighted those limitations. Earlier this year, after a U.S. fighter jet was shot down over Iranian territory, American forces mounted a complex manned rescue mission involving dozens of aircraft and hundreds of personnel operating in a heavily defended environment to recover the two-person crew.
But Monday’s rescue at sea off the coast of Oman, much like the war in Ukraine, underscores how battlefield commanders will need more drone options to deal with future threats.
