British troops educated to drop behind enemy traces are trialling stealthy electrical motorbikes for battlefield missions.
The near-silent autos have been examined in November at a secret website in rural France, the place rugged filth tracks and hilly terrain turned substitutes for desert and jungle fight zones.
The £4,495 electrical filth bikes, known as Sur-Ron Fireflys, have been ridden by troops from 16 Air Assault Brigade – the Military’s speedy response drive most lately deployed to evacuate Britons and assist workers from Afghanistan.
It’s the newest try by Military chiefs to discover a fashionable successor to the legendary Royal Enfield ‘Flying Flea’ motorbikes that have been parachuted into battle within the Second World Warfare.
The £4,495 electrical filth bikes, known as Sur-Ron Fireflys, have been ridden by troops from 16 Air Assault Brigade – the Military’s speedy response drive most lately deployed to evacuate Britons and assist workers from Afghanistan
The Fireflys are mild, weighing simply over 7st (45kg) in comparison with a daily motorcycle’s 43st (272kg), and have a high velocity of 45mph. Additionally they depart solely a tiny ‘warmth signature’, making them far much less more likely to be detected by an enemy’s thermal sensors.
Powered by lithium batteries, which may be indifferent and carried individually when troops cross water, the bikes have a variety of 60 miles and are totally charged in simply over three hours.
The trials, which may see the bikes utilized in dwell operations this 12 months, are being overseen by Captain Dan Lauder, a former Royal Marine commando who heads operations at 16 Air Assault Brigade.
‘The advantage of such a small car is that you would be able to get it at the back of helicopters,’ he mentioned.
‘You will get a number of at the back of a aircraft, after which additionally, doubtlessly, you’d be capable to drop it from the again below a parachute. They’re not noisy, they don’t make a lot thermal signature and so they can be utilized in a means the place a petroleum engine would simply give your place away.’
Capt Lauder and his colleagues consider the motorbikes may very well be very best for reconnaissance missions and delivering essential intelligence throughout battle zones with out being detected.
The Ministry of Defence mentioned final evening: ‘Additional trials will likely be required earlier than any choice is made to progress procurement’
Brigadier Nick Cowley, Commander of 16 Air Assault, mentioned: ‘As we’d like to have the ability to battle in battlefields the place we’re going to have durations of denied communications, we have to have the utmost variety of methods of getting messages across the battlefield to verify we will nonetheless manoeuvre.’
However the Fireflys could show problematic in some situations. The lithium batteries can lose their cost in chilly climate and a 60-mile vary may depart riders searching for charging factors in a battle zone.
Capt Lauder additionally found that when a battle-ready soldier with rifle, provides and protecting gear rides the car onerous, its vary drops to a measly 25 miles.
Sur-Ron Fireflys can be found to the general public and up to now have been linked to collisions the place pedestrians have been unable to listen to the bikes approaching.
The Ministry of Defence mentioned final evening: ‘Additional trials will likely be required earlier than any choice is made to progress procurement.’