Once again, military research leads to better energy efficiency, and in this case, a silent motorcycle, which can’t be a bad thing.
When it comes to our nation’s special forces, getting to battle is a key part of the mission. Considering where many of those missions lead, it is just as important to get there unnoticed and traversing long distances without needing to refuel. So how about a hybrid all-wheel-drive motorcycle? The answer is yes.
Motorcycles have long been part of warfare. In WWII, Harley-Davidson and Indian were popular motorcycles that were used as quick vehicles for messengers and other duties. Flash forward to modern warfare and the dirt bike is a crucial part of the Navy SEAL’s specialized vehicle arsenal. They include Kawasaki dirt bikes and Christini AWD military bikes. These speciality bikes feature modifications like inferred headlights, reserve fuel tanks and heat-masking paints.
According to Jalopnik’s military sub-blog Foxtrot Alpha, Logos Technologies and BRD are teaming up to create a next-generation military bike, with backing from the DARPA– the Dept. of Defense’s advanced development program.
The bike needs to be undetectable in many shapes and forms. So, in addition to running on multiple fuel types, it can run on electric power– resulting in zero engine sound. That takes away a motorcycle’s major tell. Just as important, the next-gen bikes are inexpensive (compared to other specialized transports like the V-22 Osprey), and can be suited for multiple theaters of warfare.
Alternative headline:
Once Again, Taxpayers Are Reamed For The Follies of Late Stage Imperialism
***
Did you know that oil refineries burn a heck of a lot of coal? Why it’s a double whammy, Sammy.
Thanks for sharing that great bite, and talking of Leicester here is a classic photo of that city that used to fill my lungs up with fresh sulphuric fumes a few years back. Ah breath deeply…………………….
http://tinyurl.com/lcnhhv9
You lived in China? Who knew?
rayduray – I do not really understand your question:
If it is of interest, yes I did live in China for a while, and found the people very polite and courteous and enjoyed the culture and my travels there.
If it is meant to be sarcastic, then I do not understand how I have offended you, but apologize if that is necessary.
I do believe it was a joke – but then again we can fish out pictures like that from many larger cities if we rewind the clock some 30-40 years. Its a bit ironic that the Chinese went straight into the same trap we spent the last 40 years trying to get out of, and a perfect example where a countries economic progress goes before the health of the people. But that’s what you get when unfettered capitalism rules the day.
OK, I guess I didn’t do such a good job on that joke. The image you provided of Leicester from the 1950s looks almost exactly the photos I’ve seen of many industrial and urban locations in China today. Sorry to have confused you.
It’s interesting to hear that you’ve lived in China and met nice people. So often it seems that no matter how rotten the governments and elite schemers of the planet are, the ordinary folks are, by and large, quite decent. 🙂
“So often it seems that no matter how rotten the governments and elite schemers of the planet are, the ordinary folks are, by and large, quite decent. :)”
And Ray calls me naive? The “ordinary folks” who are “quite decent” are the ones who put on the uniform and go to war for their country, Ray. You can’t have it both ways—-are the troops that you love to hate and disrespect so much good guys or bad guys?
Speaking of the Chinese in particular, a lot of U.S Marines met a lot of them in battle at places like the Chosin Reservoir (ever hear of it?), and a lot of “quite decent ordinary folks” died on both sides. And when the SHTF, Americans and Chinese may end up shooting at each other again (while you again sit on the sidelines and pontificate).
Great to see the U.S army reducing it’s carbon footprint, just had a mental image of a gang of Hells Angels gliding by on electric power. “Easy Rider” .
I read about the U.S Military deploying solar panels in their tents and adopting newer technologies:
http://www.seia.org/research-resources/enlisting-sun-powering-us-military-solar-energy-2013
other Countries are also exploring these technologies:
http://www.ecouterre.com/u-k-military-developing-solar-powered-uniforms-that-generate-electricity/
The obverse side of this coin is that by the time a galllon of gasoline or diesel fuel reached a Forward Operating Base in Afghanistan it often was delivered at a price of $400 per gallon.
This is a great way to bankrupt a nation as far as I’m concerned.
Here’s the desolate ground our grunts were idiotically fighting over with 32 million locals attempting to eke out a poverty level living:
http://tinyurl.com/lb699hp
For the past 30 years the U.S. military has been engaged in nothing but grotesque self-indulgence and the destruction of American wealth. The U.S. military is the greatest threat to America’s well-being.
Here’s what an acquaintance of mine wrote recently about his life as a grunt:
QUOTE:
When I was an enlisted soldier training for point defense, we went to the rocket range for live-fire exercises. I remember on this particular day we were training with AT-4 shoulder mounted anti tank ordinance. Basically, they are a tube with a penetrating explosive projectile inside that is propelled by a single blast out the back of the tube. You aim the tube, check to make sure some poor guy isn’t behind you, and push the trigger. This projectile blasts out and arcs across the sky much like a football. It hits the tank and punches a little hole straight through a foot of solid steel, killing anybody inside. Kinda cool.
Anyway, the day came to an end and our transport broke down so we had to walk a mile back to base. But we still had a pile of these AT-4s. Rather than each man carry two or three back to base, our sergeant had us just waste them, shooting them all off aiming at nothing in the darkening skies. These things cost $18,000 apiece! We burned up over $200,000 just so we wouldn’t have to carry 30 pounds!
So, do I cheat on my taxes? No. Do I get upset when others do? No way.
END QUOTE
Miltary intelligence my ass!
Just a note to put into perspective what our resident anti-war and anti-military “peace activist, war protester, and aging hippie” Ray Duray has said here. What he says is mainly a whole bunch of horsepucky.
Everything that makes it to the front lines on the other side of the world is expensive, Ray—food, fuel, water, ammo. It costs so much to ship anything that we plan to leave a lot of it there when we pull out. The obverse side of that coin is that it is “expensive” to ship tourists long distances also—-why does Ray not object to the waste of resources there?
And “desolate ground”? Looks a lot like places in our American West. Ever been to Nevada or Utah, Ray? (and Bend OR is not exactly a garden spot).
As for “grotesque self-indulgence and the destruction of American wealth” and being “the greatest threat to America’s well-being”, our military does exactly what our politicians tell it to do, no more, no less. Pure hyperbole, Ray.
As for what your “acquaintance wrote recently about his life as a grunt”, I call BS on both of you. Some truth for both of you the next time you decide to blow smoke up people’s butts on this topic.
1) An AT-4 costs ~$1500+, not $18,000.
2) Even at $1500, they are way too expensive to provide live fire practice to troops.
3) Since the launch tube is not reusable and you don’t need to have a huge explosion to learn how to aim and fire one, they use reusable simulators that fire small caliber rounds—a “ping” when they hit is all you need to know that you have mastered aiming and firing what is a rather simple weapon.
4) We old Marines like to think of the Army as being a bit sorry, but no sergeant worth his stripes would ever have his troops “waste” such expensive weapons by “shooting them all off, aiming at nothing in the darkening skies” or have them fire at anything but a target. That’s pure BS. And the live fire training is conducted by range instructors anyway, not by the troops’ regular sergeant or DI.
5) I doubt that the Army does live fire training any different than the USMC, and troops DO NOT haul loaded weapons (which is what an AT-4 is) or live ammo to and from the firing ranges. Not even rifle ammo. It is issued when you get to the range by the instructors and what isn’t used is taken back before you leave. If your transport fails, YOU walk home with only an empty rifle. the AT weapons, grenades, demo charges, and/or ammo or whatever you practiced with are either locked up at the range or transported back separately. Any troop who sneaks live ammo off the range will be in big trouble if caught.
Actually, I had a similar experience with a similar weapon back around 1960. We were out at the range practicing with the 3.5 rocket launcher (the Bazooka of WW2 and Korea fame). We each got to fire two rounds from the (reusable) launcher, and the rounds probably cost $30-40. Our transport got snafu’d also and it looked like we would have to sit around for 1-2 hours waiting. The range DI’s were unhappy because the trucks to haul the unused ammo back were going to be late too, and having to load it all was going to make them late for dinner with their wives (yes, they actually said that). Their solution? They told us to shoot it all up so that it would be gone, and we did just that, because it IS a cool weapon—if the light is right, you can watch the round sail off like a baseball all the way to the target and explode. And yes, we fired at TARGETS, not “at nothing up in the sky”. We had a great time shooting at the derelict tanks and APC’s that served at targets, and even coordinated our firing so that half a dozen rounds hit at nearly the same time—much noise, smoke, flame, and metal pieces flying. We got bored with that and started aiming at the base of big trees out beyond the tanks, again all together and trying to cut them down, and were told to “knock it off and fire at the tanks” when we DID knock one down. We each got to fire 6 or 8 extra rounds, and were probably the best platoon around with the bazooka after that.
“Military intelligence my ass!”, you say. I say you and your buddy are FOS and NOT entitled to make any such judgment. Grow up!
DOG,
You use bazookas to destroy trees like an eight year old and have the audacity to tell me to grow up?
GFY
***
Actually, I dropped by with an OFF TOPIC item that is pretty damn good and since there’s no thread alive at Crocks at the moment on Duke Energy, Koch Brothers, ALEC or coal ash, I’ll just dump this in your lap:
Ray,
Nice job at attempting to evade the TRUTH that you and your buddy are plainly lying sacks of S**T with your made up BS about AT-4’s. Keep making up BS like that to promote your political obsessions and you will continue to lose credibility here. Laying outrageous BS like “burned up $200,00 so we wouldn’t have to carry 30 pounds” on your fellow Crockers is so offensive it is actually obscene.
I make no apologies for what we did as 19 and 20 year old defenders of YOUR freedom to be an anal orifice then and now. It was damn good fun compared to pushing the buttons on the hugely bloody games the kids play today on their TV sets, and the DI DID tell us to leave the trees alone (and we did as we were told, because unlike you, we understood the meaning of discipline).
Yes, Ray, I do “have the audacity to tell you to grow up”, at least that side of your schizophrenic personality that is living back in the “aging hippie anti-war activist draft evader” days. And GFY?—-same back atcha, Ray. You are All Hat, No Cattle.;
“Great to see the U.S army reducing it’s carbon footprint…”
Come on now, this is silly. The US military is a HUGE waster of energy. For the last few years they’ve been pushing to build the F-35 jet which is such a fuel hog that it needs a refueling tanker to follow it into combat (which of course reducing the jet’s effectiveness as a weapon, since the tanker – itself a gas guzzler – becomes the target).
A hybrid motorcycle? What kind of mileage do you think it gets? I have a 150cc dirt bike that gets 90 mpg. I bet the hybrid gets less than that. The US military’s interest is, I assume, the ability to operate silently. Even if their motorcycle does get good mileage, that is a drop in the bucket. How many motorcycles does the US military deploy? Just 10 minutes of flying a fighter jet likely uses more fuel than all the motorcycles the US military drives in a year.
There actually was (and maybe still is) a 650cc diesel powered motorcycle made for the military which boasted slightly over 100 mpg. Diesel engines are about 50% more fuel efficient than gasoline engines of the same size because diesel uses a compression ratio approximately double (about 18:1, vs 9:1 in gasoline motors). Diesel has another nice advantage in being much less flammable, certainly an issue for the military but also for civilian drivers who would rather avoid a burning car/truck wreck. The main drawback of diesel-powered vehicles is poorer acceleration. In the past they were also known for high particulate pollution and louder noise, but those problems have mostly been overcome with better engineering in the past few years.
Solar panels on tents – well, it makes sense. In the past, the military had to carry gasoline-powered generators into the field, which are bulky and noisy. I assume they are using thin-filmed panels, which can be rolled up and thus far more portable than older-style rigid panels. Of course, they will still have the problem of needing power at night, which solar can’t provide except maybe through batteries. Rainy weather could also thwart solar, but I guess in the Middle East (where the USA seems to have invested heavily in military actions) it’s pretty sunny. Again though, don’t get your hopes up too high – solar panels on tents is another drop in the bucket compared to the gazillion gallons of fossil fuel burned up in any military deployment.
Of course, you haven’t mentioned the biggest replacement of fossil fuels used by the military: nuclear-powered ships and submarines. But I’ve probably said enough for now. In summation, I think you’re tilting the windmill if you think the US military is about to “go green.”
cheers,
Cy
Re: In summation, I think you’re tilting the windmill if you think the US military is about to “go green.”
Cy, you are far more willing to engage in a rational discussion about the military than me. Thank you.
For my part, all I wish to note is that it was insane for the U.S. to perpetrate a genocide of 3.4 million innocent Vietnamese from 1960 to 1975.
It was criminally insance for the U.S. military to perpetrate the deaths of over two million innocent Iraqis from the time the U.S. goaded Saddam Hussein to attack Iran in 1980 up until today.
The U.S. military is the worst, most criminal, most despicable force of evil on this planet today.
We, especially Peter in this instance, need to come to our senses.
Adulating a criminal enterprise makes you complicit in war crimes, Peter. Of course maybe you admire Tony Blair. Most of us do not. We think he’s a total creep.
http://www.arrestblair.org/
Crimes have been committed. Let’s not glorify the criminals.
Give it up, Ray! Cy pointed out that the military consumes huge amounts of energy and it is wishful thinking that they will reduce their “carbon footprint” significantly. He made good observations, with NO political overtones.
This post is mainly just an “interest” piece like others that Peter has posted, and you want to lecture Peter and even make him out to be a war criminal for doing so?
And “The U.S. military is the worst, most criminal, most despicable force of evil on this planet today”. WOW!, and WOW! again. Aren’t the politicians and the capitalists who sent the military to do the things you don’t approve of the real “evil” here? You have lost it big time, Ray. You insult Peter, me, and anyone else who has served by slinging this irrational anti-military horsepucky.
DOG,
OK, let’s start at the top. The DARPA developed hybrid motorcycle is to be used by JSOC special forces. The scenario I see this being designed for is night raids on “bad guy” locations in remote corners of the planet be it in Af/Pak, Yemen, 40 or so of the 57 nations in Africa that Africom wants to start to engage in, Latin America, etc. We are not allowed to know where JSOC operates. Because we’re a f*cking democracy.
What are these special forces going to be doing at 3 AM when they arrive at their targets? Pretty much the same damn thing they’ve been doing for years in Iraq and Afghanistan. Which is to raid family homes and TERRORIZE the native population.
So don’t tell me there’s any god-damned thing about this that is noble, democratic or decent.
This is a devil’s machine. Much in keeping with the EVIL that America has become.
Like our Norwegian commenter John said America is a big country and we got a lot of potholes we are neglecting. Why in the hell are we creating new devilish TERRORIST toys like this ridiculously over-done motorcycle for our death squads?
***
DOG,
You sometimes amaze me with your naivete. Like when you say the military serves at the pleasure of the elected government or “the people”. This is naive, silly stuff.
Try to understand, there’s a big world out there, and you seem to be missing it:
http://billmoyers.com/episode/the-deep-state-hiding-in-plain-sight/
http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-state-the-deep-state-and-the-wall-street-overworld/5372843
“This is a devil’s machine”? It’s a freakin’ motorcycle! And it’s no more or less “noble, democratic or decent” than the two feet, trucks, and rattle-trap helicopters left over from Korea that I was “transported” by back in the day.
“Much in keeping with the EVIL that America has become” and “….raid family homes and TERRORIZE the native population” and “death squads”? JFC, but you are really wound up today, aren’t you?
I’m not naive, Ray—if you have ever bothered to read my stuff, you will know that I am anti-plutocrat, anti-corporate feudalism, anti-bought and paid for legislators, and in agreement with YOU on all of that and more “political stuff”. You amaze me with how obsessed you are and how extreme your views are regarding our military—-and the military I speak of is NOT the military industrial complex that Eisenhower (and others going back to Lincoln) warned us about, but the vast majority of “good patriotic Americans” that have served in the past and are serving our country now. Maybe you’re subconsciously feeling guilty that you didn’t serve—you’re the one that has “missed it” and you are really mad at yourself?
BTW, the second link is excellent—-I had to read many books to learn what he has summarized in just a few pages.
I’d like to point out that the US “world police” thing is used mockingly towards USA from many countries here in Europe. There is a bit of arrogance to the whole war on terror and planting the seeds of democracy – I hope you all can see that its not as glorious as you might think. I think USA would be wiser to spend their money developing their own country, fighting their own unemployment problems, poverty, drug problems, gun violence, etc, etc. You have a large country and a lot of problems to fix – so its wise to stay out of other countries problems. The first step is ofc to reduce your dependency on e.g. oil from other countries which is viewed by many (here at least) as the main reason for US intervention into many conflicts of lately.
Sorry just had to say that, but it reflects a common view from most people I meet these days (and none of them are rabid muslim fundamentalists or something but common western people of Norway).
Thank you for being a voice of reason here at Crocks. You make perfect sense to me. And I find myself in complete accord with your views.
I agree with what you have said, and I hope it doesn’t surprise you to hear that many other Americans do also. Unfortunately, empire building behavior seems to be built into the human genetic base, and the western world has been doing most of it for the last few hundred years. That includes Norway, if you go back far enough to the days of the Vikings and “colonies” in Iceland and Greenland. Some “traditions” are hard to break (like killing whales for food when the whole world disapproves—-pardon that small snark).
It all goes back to the failure of unchecked capitalism and the free-market mentality. We will make little progress as a species until we recognize that the “policing” serves only the plutocracy and the corporatocracy.
When I was young I heard this “world policemen” from several young U.K academics (I left school at 15 to drive fork lift trucks, so I can’t be accused of being an academic). Well I’ve never adhered to that and although they seemed a bit heavy handed through some eras, the US often do help desperate people overseas and I do not see the country as imperialistic at all. The armed forces do a great job – its the politicians and politics who “dick” us all about.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-27304441
ps. can I have a green card now ?
They’ve been running a fully electric bike round at the Isle of Man TT since 2010. There’s a nice doco narrated by Ewan Mcgregor about it called ‘Charge’. Here’s last years winner: http://tinyurl.com/mqrchz8 and they are catching the petrol bikes fairly quickly. So nice try US military, but geeks are waaaay ahead of you.
Also there are hybrid rally cars holding their heads up:
http://www.emotorsportnews.com/on-track/2012/02/first-electric-rally-car-completes-dakar-challenge/