There are some other advances which have taken place over the last two or three years which are helping many more troops survive.
The public knows about the armor, but there have been a whole bunch of medical advances, from point-of-injury stuff like Curlex, to new advances in emergency medicine, like a lung machine they have in Landstuhl to prevent death from lung burns.
I think (I dunno for sure) that these things started out on the civilian trauma market and then were quickly adopted by the military. The lung machine, for instance, is experimental but it is saving lives.
d.o.l.
Criminal Number 18F
Research into finding safe effective red cell substitutes has been going on for many years, and now is being pursued mainly by biopharmaceutical companies. The two main classes of oxygen-carrying agents are stroma-free hemoglobin solutions and non-hemoglobin solutions, notably perfluorohydrocarbon emulsions. Toxicity of the latter has limited its use to support oxygen delivery during percutaneous coronary angioplasty.
Hemoglobin solutions appear very attractive, offering the advantages of a product devoid of red cell antigens, able to be virally inactivated, stored for long periods of time, and available in the field for use in mass trauma situations. However, because of its high oxygen affinity and rapid renal excretion, it requires chemical modification with crosslinking and polymerizing agents such as pyridoxal phosphate. Toxicity remains a major challenge - risks of bacterial sepsis (due to the the effect of iron on bacterial growth) and vasoconstriction due to binding of nitric oxide by the hemoglobin. A few products have reached the clinical trial stage - the most promising to date being a pyridoxalated polymerized hemoglobin solution ("PolyHeme") developed by Northfield Laboratories in Illinois. If successful, this product, and others likely to follow, may replace red cells for many of the current indications such as acute blood loss.
It might need to to carried in ammo cans or special, hard containers when dismounted. Dollars to donuts, the government will buy special, hard containers if PolyHeme works.