Australia army introduces e-bike for outfield stealth missions

Singapore army should also use e-bike.

Belmont Lay | October 07, 2021, 12:55 PM

While electric bicycles have been regulated in urban Singapore due to their improper usage on roads and footpaths that posed safety concerns to pedestrians and motorists, the Australia military has embraced the zippy two-wheeler as part of their combat arsenal.

According to Australia's Department of Defence release on Oct. 6, 2021, the e-bikes are now deployed by the army to help forces get around outdoor terrain without much sound and fury.

Used for stealth work

As e-bikes lack an exhaust system and can be significantly more silent than a combustion engine, they are favoured for stealth reconnaissance missions.

The Australia army has recently trialled the e-bike together with the Boxer Combat Reconnaissance Vehicle.

Minimise detection

The soldiers on e-bikes will scout the terrain to map possible paths for the reconnaissance vehicle, while minimising detection by the enemy.

According to the defence department, the e-bikes are quiet and "allow reconnaissance soldiers to move quickly through the battlefield" for information-gathering missions.

The e-bikes have a range of 100km to allow soldiers to travel long distances.

Fun to use

A military personnel, Corporal Thomas Ovey, said: “The footprint is minimised due to less power, less noise, and you’re not kicking up much dust that could be seen by enemy forces.”

“It’s much more effective than a standard motorbike.”

He added: “It allows us to do safe-handing of information, whether that’s information people have found on the battlefield, or even if one of the troops takes photos on their phone and wants to send it back to headquarters.”

“They’ll call us up, we’ll get the stealth bikes out, head down there and grab the information. It’s a lot quicker."

“We cover more ground much faster, and it saves time instead of waiting for troops to come to us when they’ve found something."

Corporal Ovey added that the e-bike also brought some unexpected work benefits.

“We all join the army to find a little bit of excitement,” he said.

“This is one of those things about the job that’s exciting, fun and awesome.”

All photos via Australian Government Department of Defence