Drones and Motorcycles
Who knew the humble drone would transform the battlefield?
We knew they were unmatched for surveys, photos, etc. but recent conflicts, especially the ongoing kerfluffle between Russia and Ukraine, have transformed their battlefield role from cute reconnaissance vehicle to – what? Seems like damn near anything they want to be.
Just as a for-instance – Ukraine’s use of drones in an anti-tank role has forced the armored heavy-weight, tanks, back behind the front lines to act as fire support. One would think a few inches of heavy-duty armor would do the trick – but literally thousands of tanks are getting killed, forcing the Russians to use one of the older forms of battlefield transport – motorcycles.
In 1916, US troops on motorcycles chased Mexican bandit Pancho Villa (who also used motorized bikes in his raids). In World War II, couriers zoomed all over the front carrying messages, while German reconnaissance units even used sidecar motorcycles armed with machine guns. Today, US special forces use motorbikes, including some commercial models.
“Russia’s increased use of motorcycles is an adaptation in response to pervasive Ukrainian drone strikes against Russian armored vehicles and the unsustainable armored vehicle losses that Russian forces suffered in late 2023 and 2024,” according to a new report by researchers at the Institute for the Study of War, a US think tank.
Yet Russian troops believe that motorcycles are fast enough to storm Ukrainian positions, light enough to infiltrate through terrain inaccessible to tanks, and agile enough to evade the drones that have helped destroy 10,000 Russian armored vehicles. “These assaults are quite large-scale: from a dozen to a hundred motorcycles,” the Ukrainian spokesman said. “They believe that in this way they can quickly overcome the terrain and reach Ukrainian positions — faster than a drone can reach them. And if not — then one motorcycle is spent on one drone.”
Not just your typical bikes, either.
A Ukrainian soldier fighting near the town of Pokrovsk said, “Russian motorcyclists are currently attacking in columns of eight motorcycles with electronic warfare (EW) support and that Russian servicemembers carry EW systems at the front, center, and end of the columns to protect the motorcycles from Ukrainian drone strikes.” Electronic warfare systems can fool nearby drones or scramble their control frequencies with noise.
“Russian motorcycle usage appears to have begun as a grassroots tactical response to Ukrainian drone operations, comparable to how Russia’s own informal frontline drone units began,” said ISW. Some observers have even spotted videos of Russian soldiers riding electric scooters. Business Insider
I do know some bike riders salivating at that EW prospect…neutralizing police radar…hmmm….
Russia’s Ministry of Defense (MOD) is reputedly trying to do things like centralize procurement, standardize operations, etc. Given that their rigidity in operation hurt them badly at the beginning of the war, that actually could be partially good news – but on the other hand, Russia has always been good about “if attacking with one is good let’s use 1000” and this could actually improve their odds a bit.
Category: Russia, Science and Technology
This is going to be interesting to watch.
Are these Russian bikes more expensive than a Ukrainian drone? Can they be mass-produced faster than drones?
The Russians would lose a soldier every time they lost a bike, the Ukrainians would only lose a drone.
I’d love to see the Russkies reincarnate the Ural motorcycles, those WWII copies of the German BMW, dual opposing cylinder, shaft driven bikes.
First thing I thought of. Saw a couple in the wild- they’re underpowered and about as reliable as one would suppose, being a Roosky knock-off of an ~80 year old design.
The original had a 25HP 45 CI engine which wouldn’t keep up with interstate traffic today. You have to recall in 1940 there was no high speed highway system in the US so people mostly rode at the speed to rode could afford which was often well under 60.
I suspect that many are manufactured by the ChiComs.
Drones are cheap. Unless these Russians are all MX racers, razer wire works wonders…against tanks and motorcycles!!
The 80 year old solution probably won’t work great with razor wire.
Your picture reminded me of this story.
https://www.hagerty.com/media/car-profiles/this-austin-healey-sprite-escaped-east-germany-twice/
Hell, even some bailing wire strung across a road at neck height would do a number. Im sure the Ukes have plenty of bailing wire.
Mines will work just as well on motorsickles as they do on people.
Unless they are moving too fast
Police radar jammers have been around a long time but are illegal in many states. The whole idea of using modern cavalry on a modern battlefield gives me the willies though. I imagine attrition must be in the 80-90% range.
According to “Reports From Ukraine,” the motorcycles are easily taken out … and the FPV operators are laughing at the electric scooters … before taking them out.
That’s not just insane, it’s NUTS. In fact, if I was the Ruskies I’d pull back from that finger of land because there’s no protection on either flank.
And remember, this is coming from a Marine Corps Supply Administration Specialist.
They went from modern war to WWII to WWI tactics in the space of three years. Trump may have finally figured out that Putin give absolutely zero fuqs about the lives of his soldiers.
Which is one reason the Germans phased out their motorcycle units in WWII
Most Police agencies dropped radar some time ago when laser speed guns came about.
There are tons of videos out showing the Ukrainian drones taking out Russians on motorcycles. I imagine one work around for jamming might be creating some cluster bombs for drone use. Fly over the bikes and seed the route the bikes are on.
My Uncle’s Brooklyn NY Guard was Horse Cav and releived BlackJack down Mexico way. No cycles.
E Knievel was unavailable for comment…
Electric bikes would be even better for some purposes. Dead silent and the rider throws off more of a heat signature than the bike.
How about a “mortar” cycle?
Kind of looks like a 4 duce, neat rig, it needs about 4 more murder cycles whose sidecars are carrying crates of rockets.
Likely it is their medium mortar, the 8cm mortar aka 80mm.
I don’t care what the ATF says, I want one!
Tell them it’s only used for nuisance control.
Reminds me of the recoiless-rifle equipped Vespa scooters used by French Airborne troops sometime back in the ’50’s.
Russian EW is not working on Ukraine FPV drones. A lot of the drones are using fiber optic lines that can go out 6 kilometers or more. Another unit is a mother drone with fiber optics that drops off drones remotely many miles from the operators. The mother drone can be controlled from many more kilometers from the drones and view the action from a safe distance. Like 7 kilometers or so. Russia is fucked, Putin is also facing turmoil from his leadership group and the general public. This is going to end pretty soon.
“Russian motorcycle usage appears to have begun as a grassroots tactical response to Ukrainian drone operations, comparable to how Russia’s own informal frontline drone units began,”
So what happened to those unskilled, dull, unimaginative, Russian masses I have heard of for over a half century?
The smart ones and their skills left Russia at the start of the war. Only the unskilled, unimaginative, dull ones are left. The ones that are forced to fight or their own commanders kill them if they retreat. They kill enough of their own that maybe Ukraine has a chance.