BRINC Launches Global Rescue Network to Help with Crises throughout the World

Drone company BRINC recently launched a Global Rescue Network with the goal of supporting humanitarian efforts around the world.

The network includes two dozen public safety professionals, military veterans, and both active and retired pro drone racing pilots.

Credit: BRINC

It makes sense that BRINC would launch this kind of initiative, since the company’s focus is on making drones for first responders. BRINC is best known for its LEMUR drone, which is made primarily for law enforcement—it’s commonly called a SWAT drone—and comes with a blade for smashing open windows (shown above).

The network has a broader humanitarian focus, with an emphasis on using BRINC’s drones and its strong ties to first responder and drone communities to provide support following disasters around the globe.

How Will the Network Be Deployed?

According to a recent statement from BRINC, the rescue network will be made available as needed to local first responders, NGOs, and governmental agencies during natural disasters and humanitarian crisis situations.

The network will provide both drones and personnel, including pilots, to aid in life saving operations.

The kinds of use cases where the Global Rescue Network will provide support include:

• Emergency response
• Personnel recovery
• Route clearance
• Downed utilities inspections
• Rescues in GPS-denied and subterranean environments
• Reconnaissance of debilitated/structurally unsound buildings
• Search and rescue
• HAZMAT missions

Credit: BRINC

Pilots at BRINC have more than racked up the experience needed for this kind of work. Collectively, BRINC’s team has accrued over 10,000 hours of flying time in the field in a whopping 55 different countries.

And the idea for launching the network is a direct result of all this experience.

According to Blake Resnick, BRINC’s CEO and Founder, his time in the field helping those in need inspired the formation of the network.

After having the incredible experience of using our drones to help war victims in Ukraine and at the Champlain Towers collapse in Florida, I realized how much more we could do if we set ourselves up for it. That’s what BRINC Philanthropy is all about.

Blake Resnick, CEO and Founder of BRINC

Supporting public safety efforts is at the heart of BRINC’s mission. It’s also a personal focus for Resnick, who got the idea to start a drone company to help first responders after the Mandalay Bay shooting in Las Vegas in 2017.

How Do First Responders Use the LEMUR?

BRINC already has several partnerships with first responder organizations, and its LEMUR drone is actively being used by hundreds of police departments and public safety agencies, according to the company.

The LEMUR not only comes with a blade for breaking out windows, it also has a high-def RGB camera, built-in night vision, and IR illuminators for flying in poor lighting. All of these features combine to make it a platform optimized for flying in the tight, potentially chaotic kinds of environments you might expect to encounter during a SWAT operation or a rescue mission.

Two of the most common use cases for the LEMUR are locating and communicating with suspects and looking for victims after natural disasters.

In 2021, BRINC partnered with the Miami-Dade Police Department to search for victims in need of rescue inside the collapsed rubble of the Champlain Towers condo that suddenly collapsed in Surfside, Florida.

Emergency responders not only used the drone to look for survivors, they also used it to gather key information about the stability of the collapsed structure, which helped keep those working on the site safe.

Credit: BRINC

The LEMUR has been used for similar search and rescue work more recently during the ongoing Ukraine war.

In February of this year, BRINC trained Ukrainian first responders to use the LEMUR to look for survivors in buildings collapsed by Russian missiles. As part of this effort, BRINC donated not only training but also dozens of LEMURs to Ukraine.

The donation was made quickly after Russia invaded. It required a tremendous effort, with Resnick pooling the help of almost everyone in the company to collect the drones and deliver them into the hands of Ukrainians.