Saving lives inside an 8 km “drone kill-box”: NATO Innovation Challenge invites medical equipment developers to participate in the competition

The NATO Innovation Challenge ‘Medical Care in a Transparent and Contested Battlespace’ continues to accept applications from Ukrainian developers, innovators, defence companies, and academic institutions seeking effective medical care solutions for the frontline.

This edition of the NATO Innovation Challenge focuses on providing prolonged field care (PFC) and casualty evacuation (CASEVAC) inside an 8 km “drone kill-box,” where constant enemy ISR (intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance), FPV strikes, jamming, and artillery cueing make evacuation slow and dangerous.

The key requirements for solution development under the 17th NATO Innovation Challenge on Medical Care are as follows:

Immediate Care at Point of Injury (POI): Ultra-rapid haemorrhage control and analgesia with ≤6 min objective exposure time.  

Concealed Casualty Collection Point (CCP): Deployable low-signature shelters/decoys that support ≥8 hours of prolonged field care (PFC) and integrate soft/hard-kill counter-UAS. 

Protected Extraction (CASEVAC): Autonomous or tele-operated litters, pods, or unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) survivable against splinters and FPV-drone strikes, designed to transport casualties 1–5 km to a safer medical care location.  

Medical Command and Control (C2) in a Contested Electromagnetic Environment: Secure, resilient low-probability-of-intercept/low-probability-of-exploitation (LPI/LPE) digital mesh network supporting triage, vital-sign telemetry, tasking, and telemedicine near the front, resistant to GNSS denial and jamming.

Operational Conditions for Proposed Solutions: Must function in rain and fog, and within a temperature range from –20 °C to +40 °C.

Interoperability and Standards: Compliance with NATO STANAG 2546 / AJMedP-2; open interfaces for data exchange.

Deployment Speed: deployable in ≤12 months.

Submission Deadline: 17 November 2025 (9:00 a.m. Eastern Time, Norfolk, VA). Finalists will be announced on 21 November, followed by the Pitch Day — a public defence and demonstration of the selected solutions (also available online) — on 4 December in London. 

The NATO Innovation Challenge “Medical Care in a Transparent and Contested Battlespace” is organised and conducted by the NATO-Ukraine Joint Analysis, Training and Education Centre (JATEC) and Allied Command Transformation (ACT).

Registration for participation is available here: https://www.cvent.com/c/abstracts/5a830cde-ceee-4fb9-a676-f418845ca674