How China, the US, and Europe are using robots to replace and help humans fight coronavirus by delivering groceries, sanitizing hospitals, and monitoring patients
Mary Meisenzahl 3/24/2020

Robots distributing hand sanitizer and face masks. REUTERS/Sivaram V

The coronavirus outbreak that originated in China has killed more than 17,000 people worldwide and infected more than 398,000, according to recent totals.
The virus, which causes a disease known as COVID-19, has spread to 169 countries, and the majority of infections and deaths are now outside of China.
As the outbreak spreads, robots are being used to disinfect, take temperatures, and even prepare food.

Around the world, robots are being used to minimize the spread of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, by taking on cleaning and food preparation jobs that are considered dangerous for humans.

The worldwide death toll of the coronavirus disease that originated in Wuhan, China, is now more than 17,000, and the virus has infected more than 398,000 people. On March 11, the World Health Organization (WHO) officially declared it a pandemic. The virus has disrupted travel worldwide, leading to flight cancellations, quarantines, and other breakdowns in movement and supply chains.

Take a look at some of the clever ways robots are used around the world to slow the spread of the coronavirus and help healthcare workers.

In Wuhan, where the outbreak started, a robot spraying disinfectant moves through a residential area of the city.

Sanitizing robots. China OUT (Photo by STR/AFP via Getty Images

Source: Business Insider

Volunteers refilled the robot with disinfectant on March 3.

Sanitizing robots. China OUT (Photo by STR/AFP via Getty Images


Workers on scooters control the robot.

Sanitizing robots. REUTERS

A patrol robot in a Shenyang, China, hospital checks temperatures and disinfects people and spaces.

Temperature monitor robot. Photo by STR/AFP via Getty Images


These robots are used at hospitals to cut down on demands on medical staff.

Temperature monitor robot. Photo by STR/AFP via Getty Images

Hangzhou, China, is yet another city using robots to disinfect large areas.

Sanitizing robots. Photo by STR/AFP via Getty Images


They're controlled via remote control, and can be seen getting refilled here.

Sanitizing robots. Photo by STR/AFP via Getty Images

Hangzhou's disinfecting robots look notably different from those in Wuhan and Shenyang, resembling miniature tanks.

Sanitizing robots. Photo by STR/AFP via Getty Images


Another robot disinfectant in Luoyang is remote-controlled and able to climb stairs.

Sanitizing robots. REUTERS

Anhui, China has a fleet of disinfecting robots ready to start working.

Sanitizing robots. Photo by TPG/Getty Images


This hand sanitizer-dispensing robot was photographed in Shanghai on March 4.

Sanitizing robots. REUTERS

On March 11, robots in the Hunan province in China conduct morning temperature checks.

Temperature monitor robot. Xinhua/Chen Zeguo via Getty Images


Engineers have also modified the robots to record data, give feedback, and even disinfect people's hands.

Temperature monitor robot. Xinhua/Chen Zeguo via Getty Images

Immediate feedback can make the containment process faster and more efficient.

Temperature monitor robot. Xinhua/Chen Zeguo via Getty Images


Robots are being used for more than just disinfecting areas with coronavirus. A hospital in Ezhou has incorporated a robot chef into its kitchen.

Food prep robot. Photo by Shi Xiaojie/China News Service via Getty Images

The robot can reportedly produce 100 pots of rice per hour.

Food prep robot. Photo by Shi Xiaojie/China News Service via Getty Images


The robot operates without human supervision, which minimizes the number of people in the hospital exposed to the virus.

Food prep robot. Photo by Shi Xiaojie/China News Service via Getty Images

Sharing food presents an opportunity to spread the virus, so some cities have been incorporating robots in food service and preparation.

Food prep robot. Feature China/Barcroft Media via Getty Images


This robot delivered food to diners in Hangzhou.

Food prep robot. Feature China/Barcroft Media via Getty Images

Beijing-based Zhen Robotics says that its yellow robots are in demand to deliver groceries and patrol malls for people not wearing face masks.

Delivery robot. Photo by Simon Song/South China Morning Post via Getty Images


Engineering students at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok modified medical "ninja robots" designed for stroke patients to make them useful with patients who have COVID-19.

Thai ninja robot. Photo by LILLIAN SUWANRUMPHA/AFP via Getty Images

Source: Business Insider

The robots can take patients' temperatures and protect the safety of healthcare workers by reducing interactions with sick people.

Thai ninja robot. Photo by LILLIAN SUWANRUMPHA/AFP via Getty Images


They also have a screen, allowing doctors to video chat with sick patients.

Thai ninja robot. Photo by LILLIAN SUWANRUMPHA/AFP via Getty Images

Postmates delivery robots deliver food in Los Angeles.

Postmates delivery robot. Photo by AaronP/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images


Los Angeles is one of many US cities that closed all non-essential businesses due to COVID-19, and restaurants are allowed to stay open only for takeout and delivery.

Postmates delivery robot. AaronP/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images

A hospital in Johannesburg, South Africa is using a UV light robot to disinfect the facility.

Sanitizing robot. Photo by MICHELE SPATARI/AFP via Getty Images


The hospital is using UV light instead of hydrogen peroxide, because it cuts cleaning time down from hours to five or ten minutes.

Sanitizing robot. Photo by MICHELE SPATARI/AFP via Getty Images

UV light also poses less danger to healthcare workers than hydrogen peroxide.

Sanitizing robot. Photo by MICHELE SPATARI/AFP via Getty Images


Startup Asimov Robotics launched two robots to spread awareness of the coronavirus in India.

Robots distributing hand sanitizer and face masks. REUTERS/Sivaram V

They distribute face masks and hand sanitizer...

Robots distributing hand sanitizer and face masks. REUTERS/Sivaram V


...along with information about preventing the virus.

Robots distributing hand sanitizer and face masks. REUTERS/Sivaram V

A self-driving Starship robot drops off deliveries in Emerson Valley, Britain.

Delivery robot. REUTERS/Andrew Boyers


The robot goes right to people's door, eliminating the need for contact between people.

Delivery robot. REUTERS/Andrew Boyers

Belgian company ZoraBots made a robot designed for elderly people to communicate with loved ones from the safety of their own homes.

Video call robot. REUTERS/Yves Herman


The robot has video and audio so people can still talk while sheltering at home, keeping the most vulnerable people socially connected.

Video call robot. REUTERS/Yves Herman

SLOW MOTION MASS MURDER IN THE PEWS

Trump wants to reopen the US economy on Easter because he'd like 'packed churches all over our country' despite massive public-health risk
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced that experts believe New York's coronavirus outbreak will reach an apex in 14 to 21 days. Easter is in 19 days.

DR TRUMP QUACK
'Trump kept saying it was basically pretty much a cure': Woman whose husband died after ingesting chloroquine tells the public not to 'believe anything that the president says'

THIS MAKES TRUMP NEGLIGENT AND COMPLICIT IN MANSLAUGHTER

Sonam Sheth Mar 23, 2020, 7:39 PM

The wife of an Arizona man who died after ingesting chloroquine phosphate to protect himself from the novel coronavirus spoke out Monday to urge the public not to "take anything" or "believe anything" without talking to a healthcare professional.

"We saw Trump on TV — every channel — and all of his buddies and that this was safe," the woman told NBC News' Vaughn Hillyard of President Donald Trump. "Trump kept saying it was basically pretty much a cure."

NBC News reported that the man, 68, and his wife, 61, took chloroquine to guard against the novel coronavirus, which causes a potentially fatal disease known as COVID-19. It's not clear how much chloroquine the man consumed, and Banner Health said he and his wife ingested a version of the chemical that's used to clean aquariums.

Both of them needed to seek medical care within half an hour; the woman is in critical condition, and the man died.

The pharmaceutical version of chloroquine — known as hydroxychloroquine — is used to treat malaria, but there is no conclusive evidence it is effective against the coronavirus, which the World Health Organization declared a pandemic earlier this month.

Trump has repeatedly touted the drug as a "very powerful" treatment for the disease and falsely claimed it had been approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

"It's shown very encouraging — very, very encouraging early results," Trump said last week. "And we're going to be able to make that drug available almost immediately. And that's where the FDA has been so great. They — they've gone through the approval process; it's been approved. And they did it, they took it down from many, many months to immediate. So we're going to be able to make that drug available by prescription or states."

The FDA came out with a statement after Trump's comments saying it had not approved chloroquine for the coronavirus and that much more research had to be done.

"Did you at any point hear that the FDA had not approved of it for coronavirus purposes?" Hillyard asked the woman.

"Yeah," she said. "But, you know, they kept saying that it was approved for other things."

Asked what her message to the American public was after what she and her husband went through, the woman told NBC News: "Oh my God, don't take anything. Don't believe anything that the president says and his people ... call your doctor."

"Please educate the people," she added, according to audio of the conversation that Hillyard posted to Twitter. "It feels like, like my heart is broken and it'll never mend. It's just broke, dead. Like my husband. My husband is 68. We're healthy. No underlying — no diabetes or lung issues. Nothing."

The single greatest threat to the global economy couldn't be clearer right now, and Congress is headed straight for it
Linette Lopez Mar 23, 2020

Senate Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY)

 Samuel Corum/Getty Images

The US share of global GDP is nearly 15%. If our economy can't stabilize and then recover from the coronavirus pandemic, it will be harder for the world to do so.

And so it's imperative that Congress write fair, generous legislation to get us through the economic shutdown required to fight the virus.

But that isn't what's happening. Republicans accuse Democrats of not moving fast enough. Democrats accuse Republicans of short-changing American workers and favoring big corporations.

That matters. Under-funding this stimulus will drag the global economy down. And any appearance that corporations are getting a more fair deal than individuals will make people not want to comply. A lack of compliance will drag on the crisis.

This is an opinion column. The thoughts expressed are those of the author.

The US economy contributes more than any other country to global GDP — about 15% of the total. When it falls into ruin, the entire global economy drags. We saw that happen during the financial crisis of 2008.

So it is imperative for the world that the US economy stay stable during the coronavirus pandemic, and that it can swing back to growth as soon as possible when it's over.

Right now there is one clear obstacle to that: the potential that Congress could under-fund the US coronavirus stimulus package. If they do, they put not only the economy but the effort to fight the virus at risk.

This is a case where the consequences (and possibility) of overspending are basically negligible, while the consequences of underspending could push the entire global economy into a longer, deeper recession.

And yet this weekend the Senate was unable to pass aid legislation. Senate Leader Mitch McConnell raged and blamed Democrats, while Democrats fumed over the legislation's $500 billion, opaque Treasury slush fund to be handed out to corporations at Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin's discretion. Treasury wouldn't have to report which corporations got that money for half a year, whereas during the financial crisis companies that received funds were made public within 60 days.


Democrats also rejected the bill over a lack of labor protections that would only mandate corporations keep employees "to the extent possible." They want more limits on executive compensation and share buybacks, and they want more money for healthcare workers. They accuse Republicans of being cheap, and writing a deal that favors corporations over average Americans.
You can't be cheap, and you can't be corrupt

St. Louis Federal Reserve President James Bullard on Sunday scared the pants off a lot of people by saying unemployment could hit 30% during the coronavirus. He also said the economy would take a $2.5 trillion hit. But he asked people to look at government efforts to get us through this not as an effort to stave off recession, but as an investment in public health. He's right.

"You want capital to just sit in place. Switch off the factory ... Then switch it back on," he said.

That means treating individuals and businesses with extreme generosity. To the Democrats, the Republican bill is far more generous to corporations than workers. Particularly by allowing them to fire people while still taking bailout money.

The only proposal that comes close to being generous enough for individuals comes from Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib. It would give a prepaid card with $2,000 to every American. That card would then be recharged with $1,000 monthly until one year after the end of the coronavirus crisis. This is the kind of plan that will make Americans believe the government has their back, not just the backs of big corporations.


Because you see, even a whiff of that kind of impropriety puts the entire global economy at risk. It is imperative that it be a fair deal.

The distrust that is bred by corruption will make it much harder to fight this virus, potentially dragging out the crisis. The vast majority of Americans already think that our lack of trust in each other and our government makes it hard to solve problems, according to Pew Research. If Americans feel like this whole aid package is a handout to big corporations — which they also distrust — they may stop listening to authorities.

After all, why should they respect a government that seems to have so little respect for them?

A lack of compliance would draw the crisis out only longer, bringing waves of the illness that will require mini-shutdowns to stabilize hospital capacity. Goldman Sachs estimates that the recession brought on by fighting off coronavirus will trough in April, knocking 10% off US GDP. Over time, bank analysts wrote last week, the economy should begin to grow again incrementally. How fast depends on how well Americans comply with government social-distancing mandates. Americans have to want to comply.

Goldman Sachs

I've said this before and I'll say it again: This all needs to move much faster. Small and midsize companies make up 83% of the US economy, and thousands of workers are already out of a job across the country. Means-testing initial payments to individuals — that is, restricting who gets the checks based on income — is a waste of time.

Let me put it this way: If you think that the 1% shouldn't get a check, then that means we wasted 1% of these aid funds. That's better than creating massive financial stress for millions of Americans and their families.

NOW WATCH: The founder of the World Economic Forum shares what he sees as the biggest threat to the global economy

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TRUMP ANNOUNCES END OF COVID-19  PANDEMIC 

IN AMERICA BY EASTER SUNDAY

MEANWHILE PM ABE OF JAPAN HAS CANCELED THE SUMMER OLYMPICS

WHICH WERE TO OCCUR AT THE END OF JULY

ONE OF THESE IS A QUACK SNAKE OIL SALESMAN

TV networks cut away from the White House coronavirus briefing as Trump contradicted his health experts
Kayla Epstein 3/24/2020

NOT SOCIAL DISTANCING

President Donald Trump with four members of his administration's coronavirus task force — Vice President Mike Pence, FDA Commissioner Dr. Stephen Hahn, Dr. Deborah Birx, and Surgeon General Jerome Adams — at a briefing on Thursday. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst


CNN, MSNBC, ABC News, NBC News, and CBS News cut away from President Trump's lengthy coronavirus briefing on Monday night.

During the briefing, Trump chafed at the idea of continuing the widespread order for people to stay home, saying it was harming the economy. His top infectious-diseases expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, had said social-distancing measures would need to be in place for "several weeks."

CBS told Insider that it "plans to continue covering briefings whenever possible" but may cut away for other programming. MSNBC told Insider that it "cut away because the information no longer appeared to be valuable to the important ongoing discussion around public health."

Critics of the president have called for networks to stop airing the briefings. "All of us should stop broadcasting it, honestly," MSNBC's Rachel Maddow said on Friday. "It's going to cost lives."

On Monday night, most of the major television networks, except for Fox News, cut away from President Donald Trump's daily coronavirus briefing.

Though the briefings often feature a rotating cast of Trump administration health experts, like Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and Surgeon General Jerome Adams, they have also allowed Trump to make inaccurate declarations about the administration's response and undercut the dire warnings of these professionals that Americans need to stay home to stop the virus from spreading.

As Trump has contradicted experts, provided inaccurate medical information, and engaged in lengthy diatribes against journalists, his critics have questioned how much networks should broadcast them — and whether relaying his words directly is a public benefit.
Several networks cut away from Trump's briefing on Monday night

Trump's coronavirus briefing with Vice President Mike Pence, Attorney General William Barr, and Dr. Deborah Birx of the White House's coronavirus task force was scheduled for 5:30 p.m. ET but didn't begin until after 6.

Trump quickly undermined his health experts' guidance that Americans need to stay home for several weeks, claiming that businesses would open "soon."

Trump implied that the limitations would continue for "a much shorter period of time than I've been hearing the news report," though Fauci had told the "Today" show on Friday that the measures would need to be in place for "several weeks."

At one point, Trump made Birx, the top health expert on the podium that day, part of a bit aimed at attacking journalists.

The major broadcast networks — ABC, CBS, and NBC — all cut away from Trump's briefing about 20 minutes in, The Associated Press reported. The cable news networks CNN and MSNBC followed suit after 7 p.m.

A spokesman for CBS News told Insider that the network "plans to continue covering briefings whenever possible, but may cut away for regularly scheduled news broadcasts, which many viewers depend on for delivering objective reporting and context on the developments of the day."

He said that CBS News' feed of the briefings was still available to affiliates and that it would incorporate major headlines from the events into the evening news.

MSNBC, on the other hand, "cut away because the information no longer appeared to be valuable to the important ongoing discussion around public health," a network representative told Insider.

On Twitter, Judd Deere, a White House spokesman, said the networks' decisions were "disgraceful" and thanked Fox News for airing the briefing.
—Judd Deere (@JuddPDeere45) March 23, 2020

"If the White House wants to ask for time on the network, they should make an official request. Otherwise we will make our own editorial decisions," a CNN representative said in a statement relayed by the network's media reporter Oliver Darcy.
Critics say it's time to stop broadcasting Trump's briefings

On Tuesday, the Washington Post media columnist Margaret Sullivan declared that "the media must stop live-broadcasting Trump's dangerous, destructive coronavirus briefings."

"These White House sessions — ostensibly meant to give the public critical and truthful information about this frightening crisis — are in fact working against that end," Sullivan wrote.

James Fallows, a longtime journalist for The Atlantic, also tweeted that "cable outlets should stop covering them live."
—James Fallows (@JamesFallows) March 19, 2020

"If it were up to me — and it's not — I would stop putting those briefings on live TV," the MSNBC host Rachel Maddow said on Friday. "Not out of spite, but because it's misinformation. If the president does end up saying anything true, you can run it as tape."

She added: "All of us should stop broadcasting it, honestly. It's going to cost lives."

Trump has repeatedly touted a drug called chloroquine as a possible treatment for COVID-19 over objections from his officials that it has not been approved for that use. A man in Arizona recently died and his wife was hospitalized after ingesting chloroquine phosphate, a version of the chemical that's used to clean aquariums.

"We saw Trump on TV — every channel — and all of his buddies and that this was safe," the woman told NBC News' Vaughn Hillyard on Monday. "Trump kept saying it was basically pretty much a cure."

Read more:
Trump claims if stopping coronavirus 'were up to the doctors' the world would be shut down 'for a couple of years'

Trump keeps touting a decades-old malaria pill as a coronavirus 'game changer', undercutting his top infectious-disease expert

FAUX NEWS AND DR. TRUMP
Trump just gave a disastrous coronavirus town hall full of misinformation that could kill thousands
Eliza Relman

President Trump during a Fox News virtual town hall on 

Tuesday. Screenshot/Fox News

President Trump insisted the country needs to "get back to work" as soon as April 12 during a "virtual town hall" on Fox News on Tuesday afternoon.

The president repeatedly claimed that the economic damage from the response would be worse than the loss of life the virus causes, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
"More people are going to die if we allow this to continue — people have to go back to work," Trump said. "We can't lose the advantage that we have."

The president also made a reckless claim that Americans can practice adequate social distancing while at work if they stop shaking hands and wash their hands more frequently.
Scientists and public-health experts agree that millions of Americans should stay home as businesses and schools close to contain the spread of the highly infectious virus, which is estimated to be 10 times as deadly as the seasonal flu.

The World Health Organization said on Tuesday that the US could soon become the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic.

President Donald Trump made a host of unsubstantiated claims about the threat posed by the coronavirus and announced his intent to scale back federal guidelines on social distancing by April 12 during a Tuesday "virtual town hall" on Fox News.

Trump repeatedly downplayed the public-health threat posed by the pandemic and insisted without evidence that more Americans would die if the country remains on lockdown than if the economy reopens and the virus spreads more widely.

"More people are going to die if we allow this to continue — people have to go back to work," Trump said. "We can't lose the advantage that we have."

At one point Trump claimed, without evidence, that more Americans would die by suicide if the country remained on lockdown than would be killed by "the flu."

"You're going to lose a number of people to the flu, but you're going to lose more people by putting a country in a massive recession or depression," he said. "You're going to have suicides by the thousands. You're going to have all sorts of things happen."

—Salvador Hernandez (@SalHernandez) March 24, 2020

The president also insisted that the economic damage from the response to the virus will be more damaging than the loss of life, an assertion even some of his most vocal supporters have condemned.

"We had the best economy in the history of our country, and then all of a sudden we're supposed to shut it down," Trump said, adding of the response to the pandemic: "It's been very painful for our country and very destabilizing for our country and we have to go back to work."

Scientists and public-health experts agree that millions of Americans should stay home as businesses and schools close to contain the spread of the highly infectious virus. On March 16, the federal government issued guidelines recommending that Americans avoid gatherings larger than 10 people, home-school their children, and avoid travel, among other social-distancing measures.

Trump argued on Tuesday that he agreed to these measures — recommended by the nations infectious disease experts — only to avoid criticism and political fallout.

"If I would have not done it, we would've been unbelievably criticized for not doing it," he said. "Somehow the word got out that this is the thing we're supposed to be doing."


The president also claimed that Americans could practice adequate social distancing while at work if they stop shaking hands and wash their hands more frequently.

"We have to open this country up," Trump said. "We can socially distance ourselves and go to work, and you'll have to work a little bit harder and you can clean your hands five times more than you're used to. You don't have to shake hands anymore with people."

And he inaccurately compared the threat presented by the coronavirus to the flu and automobile accidents. The country's top infectious-disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, has repeatedly asserted that the coronavirus is 10 times as lethal as the flu.

"We lose thousands and thousands of people a year to the flu — we never turn the country off," Trump insisted. "We lose much more than that to automobile accidents. We don't call up automobile companies and say 'stop making cars.'"
—Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 24, 2020

The World Health Organization warned on Tuesday that the US could soon become the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic. WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris told a press conference in Geneva on Tuesday there had been a "very large acceleration" in US cases in recent days, according to Reuters.


Harris said that in the past 24 hours, 85% of all new reported coronavirus cases had been in the US and Europe, with 40% of those in the US.

Trump also condemned New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo for asking the federal government for help in amassing thousands of ventilators necessary for what is expected to be by far the largest surge in critically ill coronavirus patients in the US.

Cuomo asked Trump on Tuesday to release the national stockpile of 20,000 ventilators to New York state, which is facing a major shortage in the critical machinery as cases surge. The governor said experts predicted the state would see the apex of its cases in about 14 to 21 days, and urgently called on the president to instate the Defense Production Act to compel private companies to begin producing critical medical equipment.

The president instead faulted Cuomo for not purchasing 16,000 ventilators in 2015 in preparation for a pandemic — a deal the governor was reportedly offered several years ago.

"He had a chance to buy in 2015 16,000 ventilators at a very low price and he turned it down," Trump said. "I'm not blaming him or anything else, but he shouldn't be talking about us. He's supposed to be buying his own ventilators."


Earlier on Tuesday, Vice President Mike Pence insisted that the federal government was "in the process of literally sending the entire national stockpile of ventilators out." But Cuomo said hours earlier than the Federal Emergency Management Agency had made only 400 of its machines available to the state.

"You want a pat on the back for sending 400 ventilators? What are we going to do with 400 ventilators when we need 30,000 ventilators?" Cuomo said. "You're missing the magnitude of the problem."
—Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 24, 2020

Adam Bienkov contributed reporting.

Trump says he wants the US open for business by Easter, but he can't actually force governors to reopen their states

• President Trump is taking a new tack toward the coronavirus outbreak by calling for an imminent rollback of social distancing. But the president could face major hurdles in trying to enact his plan to "restart" the economy.
• During Monday evening's marathon press conference, political observers began pointing out the lack of a feasible plan from the president on how to get people back to work.
• Because of the 10th Amendment, Trump can only do so much to reverse the stay-at-home and essential work orders imposed by several states.

BOMBARDIER 

The history of the US Air Force private jet that crashed in Afghanistan and has been called 'as essential to mission success as bullets'

Business Insider•January 28, 202
Air Force E-11A Crash Afganistan

Anna-Marie Wyant/DVIDS/US Air Force


A US Air Force military aircraft crashed in Afghanistan, killing all on board.


The aircraft was an E-11A communications aircraft, the military version of a popular private jet aircraft made by Canada's Bombardier.


Though the US denied it was shot down, the aircraft had a no-fatality safety record in civilian and military use.


Following the crash, members of the US Navy's SEAL Team Six recovered two bodies and the aircraft's flight recorder, Reuters reported.


Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

The US Air Force confirmed on Monday that one of its aircraft had crashed in Afghanistan, killing all on board.

The aircraft was a Bombardier E-11A, the military version of the popular Bombardier Global Express aircraft family used by the world's elite for long-range travel.

Though the Taliban has taken credit, Air Force officials have denied that it was shot down.

The Air Force frequently uses modified versions of civilian aircraft for its transport and combat missions,including those used by the 89th Airlift Wing which flies the president of the US.

While CEOs and the upper echelon of society use the civilian version of the E-11A to jet-set around the world in style and comfort, the Air Force has a different mission for it, facilitating communication between military forces in the field.

Here's what we know about the aircraft.

The Bombardier E-11A is the military version of the Bombardier Global Express family.

Bombardier Global 6000 VistaJet David Slotnick/Business Insider
Source: US Air Force

The Global Express is one of the largest wide cabin VIP aircraft produced by Bombardier of Canada's private jet division.

Bombardier Global 6000 VistaJet David Slotnick/Business Insider

The Canadian aircraft manufacturer's Global Express product line is a director competitor to Gulfstream, whose planes are also used by the Air Force.

A US Air Force Gulfstream C-20 Kevin Wallace/DVIDS/US Air Force

For the Air Force, however, it has a much different mission.

Air Force E-11A Crash Afghanistan Anna-Marie Wyant/DVIDS/US Air Force

The aircraft is used to facilitate communications, acting as a 

central hub for communications between forces both on the ground and in the air.

Air Force E-11A Crash Afghanistan
Anna-Marie Wyant/DVIDS/US Air Force
Source: US Air Force

A flying repeater, the aircraft allows forces to communicate with each other even when separated via mountains or obstacles or when using different communications systems.

Air Force E-11A Crash Afghanistan
Anna-Marie Wyant/DVIDS/US Air Force
Source: Air Force Mag

The Air Force had only four of the aircraft in its fleet.

Air Force E-11A Crash Afghanistan
Anna-Marie Wyant/DVIDS/US Air Force
Source: Military Times

The aircraft is rare and only operates in Afghanistan, so new pilots usually have their first time at the controls when flying over combat areas.

Air Force E-11A Crash Afghanistan
Anna-Marie Wyant/DVIDS/US Air Force
Source: Air Force Mag

Its sole base of operations is in Kandahar, Afghanistan, where the US military has been embroiled in war since 2001.

U.S. airmen prepare a U.S. Air Force MQ-9 Reaper drone as it leaves on a mission at Kandahar Air Field, Afghanistan March 9, 2016. Picture taken March 9, 2016. REUTERS/Josh Smith Thomson Reuters Source: US Air Force

The name for the program is Battlefield Operational Communication Node, or BACN for short, like the breakfast food.

Air Force E-11A Crash Afghanistan 

94th Airlift Wing/DVIDS/US Air Force
Source: US Air Force

Though the range of the Air Force's variant is unknown, the civilian version of the aircraft has a range upwards of 6,000 nautical miles, according to Bombardier, making it ideal for long endurance flights over battlefields.

Bombardier Global Express
MyLoupe/Universal Images Group/Getty Images Source: Bombardier

Though not as fast as other Air Force planes, Bombardier reports the civilian version of the Global Express XRS aircraft have a maximum speed of around Mach .88, greater than 600 miles per hour.

Air Force E-11A Crash Afghanistan
Anna-Marie Wyant/DVIDS/US Air Force Source: Bombardier

Its creation for born out of necessity when the military wanted to shore up communications following the rescue of Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell, a mission which was later turned into the movie "Lone Survivor."

Lone Survivor Exercise
Justyn Freeman/DVIDS/US Air Force Source: US Air Force

Now, the Air Force refers to the aircraft as "as essential to mission success as bullets."

Air Force E-11A Crash Afghanistan
Capt. Keenan Kunst Source: US Air Force

The aircraft has a strong safety record, with no recorded fatalities in the aircraft family's 27-year history before the recent incident.

Bombardier Global Express
Patrick McMullan/Getty Images Source: Aviation Safety Network

This would be the first time that a Global Express aircraft crashed without outside interference.
 

Afghanistan plane crash us air force Reuters Source: Aviation Safety Network

Following the crash, news sources reported that members of the US Navy's SEAL Team Six recovered two bodies and the aircraft's flight recorder, which can better tell what brought the aircraft down.

The wreckage of an airplane is seen after a crash in Deh Yak district of Ghazni province, Afghanistan January 27, 2020.

Reuters

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