Heavy transport drones, an augmented version of the familiar quadcopters, have become “bigger and cheaper” in recent years, reports New Scientist. While they do not yet meet the safety requirements of passenger aircraft, some could be used to “evacuate combat-wounded soldiers” or “transport people clandestinely.”
In Ukraine, where the constant threat of aerial attacks complicates the evacuation of the wounded, these drones are in the testing phase, according to the scientific journal, citing statements from the chief of the Ukrainian armed forces, Oleksandr Syrskyi, in August 2025.
“This type of drones will inevitably emerge, as advanced medical care for a severely wounded soldier within an hour dramatically increases the survival rate,” says Roy Gardiner, associated with the non-profit group Defense Tech for Ukraine.
While drones lack the medical equipment and stability of medical helicopters, they “allow for faster and more comfortable transport than ground robots” controlled remotely, which have been deployed in hard-to-reach areas.
Fear of criminal or terrorist use
However, another group could benefit from the development of this human transport technology, points out science journalist David Hambling: criminals. Because if small drones facilitate smuggling in prisons, “their larger equivalents could extract detainees,” as reported in New Scientist. They could also “transport armed terrorists to secure areas,” disregarding physical obstacles (high walls, rivers, ditches).
In this sense, the intelligence company DroneSec, based in Australia, highlights in its latest report a video from the Pakistani Islamist armed group Lashkar-e-Toiba, “already known for arms and narcotics smuggling at the Indo-Pakistani border,” showing a drone “transporting a passenger over short distances in a training camp.”
While the commercial use of this technology should necessarily be conditioned by “numerous security devices” and tests “in all kinds of conditions before they are put into service,” the use of such drones for criminal purposes raises fears of endangering human lives.
