http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2014/04/17/military-developing-stealth-motorcycle-to-let-forces-travel-fast-and-silent/?intcmp=features
Taking motorcycles to another level
Commercially available motorcycles don’t make sense for the military.
For starters, they tend to use gasoline, and most American and NATO military machines use JP-8, a formulation of jet fuel similar to kerosene and diesel fuel. DARPA wants the vehicle to be electric-only for short periods of time and to run on JP-8 or diesel when it isn’t.
In addition to being heavy fuel compatible, the hybrid will have more than 10 percent better fuel consumption than the military motorcycles currently in use. The features that the military would like – heavy fuel capability, two wheel drive and hybrid powertrains – have all been achieved independently, but this will be the first time all these capabilities are combined.
Hybrid-electric power is already finding its way into lots of commercial applications, from construction equipment to cars and buses. Research has been underway to bring hybrid motorcycles like Yamaha’s Gen-Ryu and HV-X concepts to the consumer market. But the military requires hybrid tech capable of more.
BRD already has much of the design DARPA has on its wish list in commercially available motorcycles.Enthusiasts claim BRD’s Redshift, with 40 horsepower and weighing about 250 pounds, is the fastest street-legal gas or electric dual-sport bike.
It takes four hours to charge with a standard EV charger, or a home charging station. A single charge gives the bike a 50-mile range. And the BRDs are very robust. The company says they are “designed to handle being dumped, dropped, slid, tipped, and just plain crashed.”
What’s next?
In the first development phase of the military’s hybrid motorcycle, the BRD and Logos Technologies team will produce a preliminary design and demonstrate key elements like hybrid propulsion, engine, motor and power control.
In the final phase, the military would look at this hybrid as a replacement for those motorcycles currently in service, like the M1030M1.
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