The British Navy adopts new equipment supposed to facilitate the fight against piracy on the high seas. This new equipment is quite simply a jet suit developed by the English company Gravity Industries.

It is actually a jet-pack that allows a soldier to fly through the air for a few minutes in order to disembark on a ship.

In a video posted by Gravity Industries, several Marines can be seen training to use the Gravity Jet Suit as part of “visit, board, search and seize” operations on a ship.

The suit allows one person to get to the target easily and quickly, in order to set up a rope or ladder for other soldiers.

Gadget or military revolution?

This is not the first time that the Gravity Jet Suit has made a name for itself.

The British company had already carried out several demonstrations with the Royal Navy, as well as with the Dutch maritime special operations forces, but since then, the jet-pack has had a few modifications.

The combination seems indeed to have been simplified. The rockets with arms are smaller and the backpack of the jet-pack has been revised and corrected to be closer to the models that can be seen in action movies.

Although still in the experimental phase, the suit could truly revolutionize military maritime boarding operations since it effectively facilitates access to a target vessel. “Visit, board, search and seize” operations are particularly dangerous for soldiers, which is why the jet-pack seems to be the ideal solution. The objective of this "is to provide extremely fast access to any part of the target ship, instantly freeing up the hands to carry a weapon, and even retaining the ability to move on the target or s. 'self-exfiltrate,' Gravity Industries said in a statement.

If the demonstrations of the jet-pack are done mainly on the side of the army, Gravity Industries told The Verge that its technology was not reserved for military use.

The British company has also carried out tests with the Great North Air Ambulance, a British charity that comes to the aid of people trapped in the mountain ranges and also responds to various other emergency scenarios in the north of England.

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  • UK

  • Army

  • Marine

  • Piracy

  • High-Tech