AI-rewritten: This is a summary of an article from MIT Technology Review, rewritten by AI (Qwen, running locally) to make it easier to read. The facts come from the original article – read it for the full story.

---

In February 2007, a US military helicopter was conducting a "blood run" to transport blood from a field hospital near Balad, Iraq, when it was struck by an insurgent missile over Karmah. The pilot had only 58 seconds to battle the fire before the aircraft crashed, killing all seven crew members. Lieutenant Commander Robert Murray, a DARPA program manager, explains that these missions are high priority because blood shortages cause about 90% of preventable battlefield deaths and millions of maternal deaths globally.

A chronic shortage affects both military and civilian sectors. A 2025 study found that only 1% of US trauma patients who needed blood received it before reaching a hospital, leading to roughly 10,000 annual preventable deaths in the US alone. Murray notes that whole blood spoils within 35 days when refrigerated, while platelets last less than a week at room temperature and red blood cells spoil within days after thawing. He emphasizes that combat injuries require transfusion within 36 minutes to maximize survival chances.

To address these issues, DARPA launched the RAPIID program with a $73 million budget to create shelf-stable versions of plasma, platelets, and red blood cells. Plasma is the easiest component to stabilize; researchers have successfully freeze-dried it since the late 1930s, though earlier attempts were halted due to hepatitis risks. Platelet preservation has seen limited success, with some products relying on human donors that may not scale easily. Red blood cell research faces significant hurdles regarding cost and storage limitations.

Historical attempts to mimic red blood cells using hemoglobin-based oxygen carriers (HBOCs) failed in the late 1990s because these synthetic versions constricted blood vessels and increased death rates by 30%. More recent efforts involve growing red blood cells in labs using stem cells, but costs remain prohibitively high at tens of thousands of dollars per unit. Murray aims to deploy dried blood products in the field by 2029, coordinating trials with the FDA while developing durable storage bags and testing methods for artificial blood volume.