Royal Marines conducted “a very successful exercise” testing the capability of the Gravity Jet Suit to support Royal Marine boarding operations.
Gravity Industries said their team spent three days with 42 Commando Royal Marines from HMS Tamar off the south coast of England.
A video from Gravity Industries showed a Maritime Boarding Operation exercise with a fast rib boat coming alongside a moving high-sided ship, and hooking a caving ladder to permit assaulting personnel access. You can watch the footage here.
“The vision with the Jet Suit is to provide extremely rapid access to any part of the target vessel, instantly freeing up hands to bear a weapon, and even retaining the capability to relocate on target or self-exfiltrate,” the company said in a news release.
“This is increasingly seen as a revolution in tactical capability for many special forces and has much broader application beyond Maritime boarding.”
What a fantastic time to be a Royal!
World-wide operations, new ethos and fantastic kit!
Have to admit, I would not have the cajones to do that onto a moving vessel until I’d seen it done safely several times, mind.
First-class piece of kit, no more lead rock climbers required for beach assaults either. Just fly up the face and lower the rope down!
Watched a number of programmes about the Gravity kit, yes he can fly a lot higher but he always fly low at this time, due to safety and limited fuel. Theres a lot of promise on this kit, with future development.
No doubt we’ll get there eventually! I wonder how long it will take us to reach the summit of Everest 😂
“15,000 feet
And JetPack Aviation, based in the San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles, invented what it calls “the world’s only JetPack,” which can reach up to 15,000 feet in altitude and operate for about 10 minutes.14 Oct 2020″
https://people.com/human-interest/jetpack-flying-man-makes-history-ground-launch-flight/
Uk has made an advancement: In your face world!
(btw this is minecraft meme)
Sorry Nate m, you’ve lost me?
They look incredibly vulnerable to small arms fire in those but I suppose no more so than when fastroping or conventionally boarding. Awesome time to join the RM right now, so much to do and experience
Was thinking the same, one stay bullet would cause a big explosion, if it hit the fuel tank.
From the lack of noise, it seems to be electrically powered.
Still could catch fire if hit, but it wouldn’t splash and stick to the user.
The system is powered by kerosene.
Okay. Less dangerous than petrol anyway.
Jet powered mate.
Any bets on something like an Uzi being fitted to the hand grip?
Looks like the man has a pistol on a lanyard.
Putting a weapon on the handgrip would make it unstable if used while flying.
Yep..should have thought of that. Recoil?
You could have a shoulder mounted gun controlled by eye movement.
Yes something like this so you can suppress as you land. One step closer to Ironman. Hacksmith gave him an actual mask to try on a while ago:
The TRUTH About IRON MAN in Real Life! – YouTube
Imagine twenty marines doing that simultaneously!
Next generation: Shoulder mounted weapon aimed by eye movement.
Better yet, shoulder gun remotely controlled by another operator so the flying marine can concentrate on his job.
Well, I was thinking: Land like Iron Man and then ask everyone to hold on a minute while you get the engines off your arms and draw your weapon. But that’s probably catered for?
Unlike the bloke scaling the side of the ship at least jet pack man has some manoeuvrability to play with.
Climbed one of those ladders into a hovering Chinook, through the central hatch. To say my heart was pounding through my chest would be an understatement,. No safety line, just big boy pants, bloody hard work when carrying your gat, webbing and daysack…..
Well, if Tony Stark can do it, so can the RM.
The suit will improve! 😉
That is pretty amazing, I have to admit…
So want to have a go at this.
well, gravity run training camps…..ive seen at least a couple youtubers document them trying it….
For a flight experience it cost £2000 +VAT.
How many pilots have actually been trained to fly those things. I’ve seen some cool videos on YouTube and it does look hand for fast boarding but also seriously risk from rashing into the sea. Its prob safer from small arms fire than boarding with a rib though due to the smaller target and higher approach speed.
from watching youtubers at gravity training camp……some people have the affinity for it and get it real easy…..and some don’t…. 😛
There are two types of boarding opposed/non compliant and unopposed /compliant.
Compliant is easy.
You rock up, ask the crew to lower a ladder and then move to the Bow area. You board and then move fwd to check the crew and secure the embarkation area. After that the crew go to the mess whilst you search. Usually its tea, coffee biscuits and a bit of ditting with the crew and Capt. You finish, depart and all is good.
Non compliant is the ship doesn’t lower a ladder, won’t slow down and is generally doing everything it can to stop you getting onboard.
In this case the Green team(Royal) with sometimes a couple of Blue team behind them (RN) go in mob handed and fully tooled up. You can expect to rapid rope down from a Helo at 120ft, cut your way in using saws, gas axes and vandal pry bars. You have top cover from a marine sniper team, Ribs with guns and the ship training its guns on the target of interest.
So for a compliant boarding Gravity kit is an easy way to get on board.
For a non comiant you can board when and where you want. If anyone turns up with a rifle or machine gun the marine sniper in a Helo will make sort work of them.
Anything that means you don’t have to climb up a + 20m rope ladder is a bonus. Royal can embark and do his bit whilst they leave the poor Blue team to climb in full kit with body armour, guns, search kit and comms gear !
By the way… 53 compliant and 1 very mildly opposed boarding in 90days in the NAG was a great time. I especially liked the absailing down container stacks to search them.
One step closer to Assault Marines!
Most advanced thing we had was a rope swing, come a long way.
John Wayne beat them to it in “Flying Leathernecks”.
This is awesome kit and is even British developed and built however I am ever so slightly concerend that he is a lot mor visible approaching the skip so could attract fire which isn’t a massive problem in its self however in the jetsuit The Royal can’t fire back? I’m not a service member so would be intersted to hear a service members view…
He cant fire back if the opponent suddenly becomes hostile, but its the same situation someone would be in while climbing a grapple, The marines in the boats have just as little cover.
The jetpack soldier is reliant on covering or suppressive fire from his colleagues if the boarding is resisted, the same as would happen during a normal boarding. E.g. when the assault is made rappelling to the deck from a helicopter another helicopter circles close by with a sniper to provide covering fire.
If the RM are playing with this UKSF have already checked it out and rejected or adopted it.
Is he the future loyal wingman?
The same type of display was carried out by Gravity Industries staff to show that the equipment could be used to get paramedics up to a casualty, in a mountains rescue situation . The only problem is how do you carry your kit you need ( protection weapons webbing or medic kits) , when you need both hands for the hand jets and the main jet is on you back .
I hate to be the naysayer but it looks like an easy defenseless target to me. I’d guess you would also need a diversion to give the target, I mean RM, a chance to survive. Boarding a moving ship, hmmm? How about ordering the ship to heave too and if they don’t but a shoulder-fired missile in the stern while taking out any visible whatevers. Still, the technology does have potential use. Right now I’m thinking window cleaning on high-rise buildings or