I agree Kaladorn. I read through the article closely and it is not specific about where in the casualty evacuation process the trauma pod might be used. Just because the requirement specifies “hardy enough to perform under fire” – or that it provides a certain amount of survivability - doesn’t really give enough clues to judge where the pod would be used on the battlefield. I don’t think this replaces the first aid and evacuation provided in the first minutes.
Say you are on patrol and shot. The first person to render aid will be a combat lifesaver. Someone in your fire team or squad with a fairly good aid bag ("combat lifesaver bag") which includes pressure dressings and some IV bags and other goodies. (If you can, build enough for everyone to have one.
) Anyway, this guy had a week long course that is a bit better than Red Cross training. If your team isn’t having a really bad day, some vehicle along with an attached medic will show up a block or two away from the shooting. By this time you should have a pressure dressing on and be prep’d for transport. That basically means someone is going to throw you into an empty (or not) space on the vehicle floor while the vehicle fights its way back to the casualty collection point. Doctrine says this should be your task force’s combat trains, but depending on your AOR, the availability of lift, etc. you could just as easily be in base in a full field hospital within thirty minutes. By doctrine, however, you still take another ambulance (hopefully armored) from the task force combat trains back to the brigade support area for evacuation.
To get to my point, it really depends on where the casualty is introduced to the trauma pod. The brigade support area (BSA) has a ‘robust’ medical capability – provided by the forward support battalion’s medical company… but they still only perform triages, initial resuscitation, and stabilize for transport. The BSA only has one or two surgeons and a couple of physician assistants for knife work. The BSA is considered a forward area and subject to fire—hopefully only indirect, but lately a lot of direct fire.
Bottom line, I assume these pods would remain a corps asset but would doctrinally evacuate casualties from the BSA to a MASH or base camp and provide some kind of thoracic resuscitative surgery and treatment for stabilization based on triage. The pod basically keeps him from bleeding out or dying from shock during a fast UAV trip to base. I am guessing, but I think that isn’t necessarily the front line some of you might be envisioning. Someone is still going to pull him to cover and then drive him a “safe” distance away before pod evacuation--maybe 8-10 kilometers under conventional doctrine.