The U.S. Army will test in Morocco an Autonomous Aircraft Casualty Evacuation (CASEVAC) System which uses uncrewed or autonomously piloted aircraft to transport wounded personnel from combat or disaster zones to medical care without risking an onboard pilot or crew.
U.S. Africa Command has picked U.S. Merlin, an aerospace and defense technology company building the operating system for autonomous flight to demonstrate capability in the initial phase of its Autonomous Casualty Evacuation (CASEVAC) Industry Technology Challenge.
Merlin received a $500,000 contract, which will fund a demonstration of Merlin Pilot autonomously executing a CASEVAC mission using a Cessna 208B Grand Caravan.
Planned for early U.S. government fiscal year 2027 in Morocco, the demonstration will encompass the full mission, from initial tasking and flight planning continuing through autonomous departure and enroute flight to an austere casualty collection site.
Following simulated patient loading, the aircraft will conduct its return mission, autonomously completing the flight and landing back at the designated location.
AFRICOM’s area of responsibility spans vast distances, and security threats can prevent access to nearby medical facilities, often forcing longer and more dangerous patient transport. In these conditions, transporting a wounded noncombatant or service member to medical care is both time-critical and logistically complex.
Conventional casualty evacuation relies on crewed aircraft, while remotely piloted systems require persistent command-and-control links that may be unavailable in austere or contested environments. The challenge set forth by AFRICOM seeks autonomous solutions that can accelerate access to a higher level of care while reducing the number of personnel exposed to risk.
Merlin’s demonstration is planned to show how Merlin Pilot can bring onboard autonomy to aircraft supporting CASEVAC missions, managing flight planning, navigation, contingency response and mission completion without relying on a remote ground station or flight crew.
The system is designed to plan the optimal route from an operator’s tasking, replan dynamically around hazards, communicate with air traffic control using natural language processing, and continue safely along its authorized plan if a communications link is lost.
The aircraft’s large cargo door and flat-floor cabin will allow ground level litter loading without rotor wash, winching or special equipment, and its cabin will be configured with an air ambulance medical module providing oxygen, power, and mounting for patient monitoring equipment.
“Casualty evacuation is ultimately about getting wounded noncombatants and service members to surgical care as quickly and safely as possible: a mission made more difficult by long distances and unreliable communications. Onboard autonomy could help overcome those constraints by accomplishing the CASEVAC mission from end to end, even when communications are disrupted,” said Matt George, CEO & founder, Merlin.
Merlin Pilot’s aircraft-agnostic architecture is designed to allow its autonomous capabilities to be extended across airframes. Merlin believes there is a clear follow-on path to operational scale using a King Air variant, which would provide twin-engine redundancy, greater payload capacity, and additional cabin space for multiple litter patients, medical equipment, and an in-flight attendant. The same architecture could also support autonomous logistics and personnel movement across dispersed operating locations.
This demonstration builds on Merlin’s work on Department of War autonomy programs, including its C-130J program with U.S. Special Operations Command. Merlin Pilot has completed hundreds of autonomous flights across multiple fixed-wing aircraft, including a recent flight demonstration at Alliance.
