The United States Army shows its electric bicycles for reconnaissance missions

@DefAviation ES 4·30·2024 · 22:00 0

The United States Army is, without a doubt, the best equipped army in the world and has a very wide range of ground vehicles.

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If you think about US Army vehicles, surely the first thing that comes to mind are M1 Abrams tanks, M2 Bradley infantry fighting vehicles, Stryker armored vehicles or Humvee tactical vehicles. And perhaps the last vehicle you would think of is a bicycle. Despite this, bicycles have been a type of vehicle used by some armies for a long time, specifically since the 19th century, but the arrival of motor vehicles ended up displacing them.

Bicycles are awakening new interest in some armies with the incorporation of electric motors. These electric bicycles have been used for years by police forces in different countries, and it was clear that they would also end up reaching the forces armed. Two years ago we saw here the Eleek Atom electric bicycles of the Ukrainian Army (above), and now it is the turn of the US Army.

A few days ago, the 2nd Cavalry Regiment of the US Army showed its electric bicycles in Poland during the Saber Strike 24 exercise held at the Bemowo Piskie training ground. The US Army published this photo of three soldiers from that Regiment, indicating that they use these light vehicles for long-distance reconnaissance. The bicycles in the photo wear the same OCP camouflage, based on Multicam, that the US Army uses on its field uniforms.

I managed to find a clearer image of that electric bike on its manufacturer's website: it is a Recon Ranger from the American company Recon Power Bikes. It is not a cheap model: its base price is $3,995 (about 3,741 euros), that is, almost like a motorcycle. It has a 1,000-watt motor, a 48-volt lithium-ion battery and a control panel with a color LCD screen. It can reach up to 30 miles per hour (48 km/h) and has a range of 50 miles (80 km) between charges. Here you can see a video posted by an Iraq War veteran three years ago testing this bike:

The Recon Power Bikes website shows this photo of a US Army Ranger with that bike on Fort Bragg (now Fort Liberty), North Carolina, the hub of the US Army's special operations community.

It is the first photo I have seen of a member of that unit with one of these bicycles. On the multimedia portal DVIDShub.net of the US Armed Forces there is only one photo (the second that I have put in this entry) showing soldiers with the Recon Ranger.

On March 8, 2024, the Recon Power Bikes Facebook page showed these photos of precision shooters from the US Army's 4th Infantry Division with Recon Ranger electric bicycles during an exercise at Fort Waine.

In these photos published by Recon Power Bikes we see a bicycle with OCP camouflage and another painted olive green The particularity of these photos is that one of the bicycles has a trailer, which It allows the soldier to carry more supplies than he can carry on his back.

Obviously, electric bicycles have an advantage over electric motorcycles: if your battery runs out you can pedal. Furthermore, compared to combustion motorcycles, both bicycles and electric motorcycles have the advantage of being quieter, which is very important in a reconnaissance mission. The drawback, obviously, is that a combustion motorcycle has more range and more speed than one of these bicycles.