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The US Military’s new motorbikes are quiet – deadly quiet. In 2014, the US Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) launched a competition to develop stealth motorcycles. Two ventures picked up the gauntlet, along some DARPA funding, and delivered prototypes that were displayed at the National Defense Industrial Association’s Special Operations Forces Industry Conference.
The spooky-named Nightmare by LSA Autonomy and the Silent Hawk from Logos both feature hybrid multi-fuel engines that can run on pretty much anything. “If it’s gasoline, tell it it’s gasoline, tell it it’s something else. It will figure it out,” said Logo engineer Alex Dzwill.
It can burn through everything, from jet fuel, through regular old petrol, to (probably even) olive oil, Dzwill said.
To achieve stealth, however, both bikes switch away from combustion, and kick-in their electric motors, which at about 55 decibels keep them as quiet as an indoor conversation. Both bikes rely on a lithium-ion battery to operate. For those wondering how they solved the infamous exploding battery issues of previous generations, Dzwill says that Alta Motors, who designed the Silent Hawk’s electronics, have “purpose built this battery pack to be of higher density … They have an active cooling system in it that insures that even if there is a cell failure that one cell will fail with no explosion. It will remain operational.”
At 181 kg, the Nightmare is significantly bigger than the 158 kg Silent Hawk. It carried quite a bit more punch, as well, generating 13 kilowatts to the Hawk’s 7.5. “We’ve got a much bigger bike for the same type of requirements,” said LSA’s chief engineer Jean-Marc Henriette.
The only thing missing, it seems, is self-driving capabilities. “That’s something that’s been talked about,” said Henriette. Dzwill, too, said they could make something work “if the end user was interested in that feature.”
