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Thread: Royal Marines Using Jet Packs to Board Ships

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    Royal Marines Using Jet Packs to Board Ships

    Only a test, a friendly ship in calm conditions, but still, it's a freaking jet pack.


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    Another exercise. Looks like the same crew but different jet pack equipment.



    And since this is Pistol-Forum, I see note the use of a UTM Glock 17 and the low ready position.

    ETA: Apparently this unit is the Netherlands Maritime Special Operations Force

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    Member snow white's Avatar
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    This is the coolest thing ever.
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    I know they have a long history of driven pheasant shoots, but these guys look a lot more like the pheasant than the hunter.
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    Member olstyn's Avatar
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    That's pretty neat, but seems kind of impractical, at least in terms of use for boarding a hostile vessel. Wouldn't the crew of the vessel you're trying to board just shoot you out of the air, possibly while yelling "PULL!" as a taunt?

    ETA: Apparently GJM beat me to the same conclusion while I was typing...

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    Quote Originally Posted by olstyn View Post
    That's pretty neat, but seems kind of impractical, at least in terms of use for boarding a hostile vessel. Wouldn't the crew of the vessel you're trying to board just shoot you out of the air, possibly while yelling "PULL!" as a taunt?

    ETA: Apparently GJM beat me to the same conclusion while I was typing...
    I'm not an operator, but I'm under the impression that boarding vessels is hazardous job regardless of the method used. I think you've got two main options:


    1. Come alongside a moving ship and climb up a rope ladder while suspended over the ocean
    2. Fast rope down from a helo


    Both options leave you vulnerable to armed resistance. So the JET PACK (!) doesn't look any worse. Especially if it was done under the cover of darkness, with armed overwatch from a helicopter.

    Maybe some of the recon marines have experience and can weigh in?

  9. #9
    Quote Originally Posted by olstyn View Post
    That's pretty neat, but seems kind of impractical, at least in terms of use for boarding a hostile vessel. Wouldn't the crew of the vessel you're trying to board just shoot you out of the air, possibly while yelling "PULL!" as a taunt?

    ETA: Apparently GJM beat me to the same conclusion while I was typing...
    Without revealing TTPs, it is common in any kind of contested boarding to misdirect attention from the people on the prize vessel while your initial boarding party moves in. On a truly opposed boarding, that "misdirection" might consist of emptying a belt from a M240 into the bridge and weather decks from a hovering helicopter. On a vessel that is merely "non-compliant" that might consist of the helo shining searchlights, firing things like launched noise flash distraction devices, and etc. This could also include a boarding party in conspicuous view in one small boat, while another boarding party has looped around over the horizon to approach from a different vector. You can find video of all those techniques, so I'm not giving away the family jewels there.

    Most non-compliant vessel boardings would be "unannounced nighttime boardings" which is a fancy way of saying "sneaking on at night." Bonus points for a knife in your teeth.

    So absent something like an in-extremis hostage rescue, or seizing a vessel with a dirty bomb aboard as it transits under the Golden Gate, these suits would most likely be used at night, with the operators using NODS, and also be combined with some other things to help them get aboard.

    There was a period of my life where this sort of suit would have made my life easier. Although as someone who found out that an inflatable life vest didn't have enough buoyancy to keep me from sinking to the bottom of a pool while wearing a plate carrier and such, I wonder how quickly you can ditch out of that suit if it fails and you land in the water.
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    Member snow white's Avatar
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    Also ideally the product improved future iteration would be substantially more quiet, compact and controllable. That's half the cool factor for me. Not just what is being tested now but what it could potentially become in the future.
    Come, mother, come! For terror is thy name, death is in thy breath, and every shaking step destroys a world for e'er. Thou 'time', the all-destroyer! Come, O mother, come!

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