The Pentagon has developed a powdered blood substitute, marking a revolutionary breakthrough for battlefield rescue.
Reported by Russian media on April 22.
According to a project lead from the Pentagon’s research agency DARPA, who spoke this week with Business Insider, the organization has achieved its first-ever development of a powdered blood substitute.
As the Pentagon adjusts U.S. military readiness strategies for future warfare, securing blood supply has become increasingly critical.
During two decades of global counter-terrorism operations, the U.S. military often enjoyed air superiority, meaning injured ground troops could be rapidly evacuated—typically within the "golden hour"—to bases where high-level medical and trauma response teams were always on standby.
In the prolonged conflict in Ukraine, however, the use of medical helicopters has become highly risky due to threats from attack drones tracking both wounded soldiers and rescue personnel, making access to fresh blood an urgent challenge for military commanders.
Powdered blood may offer a solution to many modern challenges.
"We succeeded in the petri dish. Now we’ve succeeded in animals," said Navy physician Robert Murray, representing DARPA on the project. "I didn’t expect such a high success rate."
Murray explained that the powder is stored in a double-chamber blood bag, separated from sterile water, and mixed directly with the patient before use.
The double-chamber bag is durable and resistant to rupture, allowing soldiers to easily carry it in their gear. Opening the bag, mixing the powder with water, and the solution is ready, the military doctor said.
Murray added that whole blood obtained through FSHARP technology is superior to blood components mixed later.
According to Murray, blood transfusions are not a common practice in the U.S. military outside of large-scale wars.
But in the event of a major war, this situation could change dramatically.
Murray said DARPA’s next step is to accelerate the submission of an application to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to obtain approval for using this powdered blood formulation.
Before synthetic blood can pass FDA testing—including human trials—DARPA aims to establish conditions to avoid the financial pitfalls that frequently derail high-tech projects.
It must be ensured that synthetic blood is financially viable—or at least that companies and hospitals producing and using it do not incur losses.
Murray stated that currently, producing synthetic blood yields almost no profit.
Hospitals already face economic difficulties in maintaining blood supply sustainability, especially smaller systems.
Meanwhile, more and more units are learning to set up mobile blood collection points and perform emergency fresh whole blood transfusions immediately after injury, with one soldier administering blood to a wounded comrade.
This training is useful and important—but it remains only a temporary solution.
Original article: toutiao.com/article/1863131320230924/
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone.