Blood loss or “bleeding out” is the leading cause of preventable death on the battlefield, military health experts say.
So one of the best ways to save lives during combat operations is to provide blood products to forward deployed medics and corpsmen as soon as possible.
During the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, getting the needed blood products to injured warfighters was typically not a major challenge when the U.S. military controlled the skies and maintained a nearby network of medical facilities.