Royal Marines trial jet-pack in ship boarding demo

In the recent video, the three Royal Marine jet suit pilots demonstrate how the suits could assist in a ship boarding operation

Spotted: Most jet suits and other personal flying suits are primarily used in demonstration flights, with the amount of risk and cost currently produced making them unavailable to buy commercially.

However, Gravity Industries’ jet pack video is marketing the device to military units across the world, who have the financial resources and defence needs to make use of the suits. In the recent video, the three Royal Marine jet suit pilots demonstrate how the suits could assist in a ship boarding operation. 

The video demonstrates three different ways in which the suit could be used: in the first, the pilot launches from a small boat and pursues a ship, before landing and dropping a ladder overboard. In the second, he moves quickly to and from the boat and ship, and in the third, three pilots land on the deck quickly. 

However, the suit design does have some obvious design flaws. Not only are the turbines very loud and thus very much detectable, but the suit doesn’t currently have capacity for the soldier to wear a gun, and relies on them taking the suit off and finding their gun very quickly, should they be under attack. James Bruton, a Youtuber and robotics specialist is helping to develop a hand-tracking shoulder turret, where a rifle could be placed and aimed mid-flight, to tackle this issue. 

Thus, although we might see the suits deployed in military missions in coming years, it is unlikely that the majority of us will be using them to travel around just yet. 

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