US Army ‘hoverbike’ drone will carry guns and armour into battle

It's been compared to Amazon's delivery service, but for the battlefield

The US Army wants it to be capable of flying low to the ground or at thousands of feet, at 60mph (Malloy Aeronautics)

The ‘hoverbike’ quadcopter being developed by the US Army looks set to be used for the delivery of supplies, rather than soldiers.

The Joint Tactical Aerial Resupply Vehicle (JTARV), as it’s formally known, was previously believed to have been designed to carry soldiers into battle wherever and whenever reinforcements were required, but a new release from the Army Research Laboratory (ARL) makes no reference to that particular use-case.

It instead likens the contraption, which resembles a pair of drones attached to a table-top, to Amazon’s delivery service.

“Anywhere on the battlefield, soldiers can potentially get resupplied in less than 30 minutes,” said Tim Vong, the associate chief of ARL's protection division. “We want to have options like that.”

The current prototype is electric, but the researchers behind it are open to adopting a hybrid propulsion system in order to increase range. They want the finished model to be capable of flying low to the ground or at thousands of feet, at speeds of at least 60mph.

“We're exploring increasing payload capacity to 800 pounds and extending the range up to 125 miles,” added Vong. “We're also looking to integrate advanced intelligent navigation and mission planning.”

The JTARV is a joint project between the ARL and UK firm Malloy Aeronautics, which originally showcased the hoverbike on crowdfunding platform Kickstarter