Russian soldiers are replacing tanks with motorcycles

• Tanks and armored vehicles are usually at the vanguards of attack. Not suitable for Russia.

• Ukraine's Russian army is using motorcycles, with tanks hanging to provide fire support.

• It looks like an adaptation of the desperate frontline troops who suffered a severe drone attack.

Even before the army used tanks, they were using motorcycles. In 1916, the US military on motorcycles chased Mexican robber Pancho Villa (who also used a motorized bicycle during the raid). During World War II, couriers magnified the entire carry message, while German reconnaissance forces even used sidecar motorcycles with armed machine guns. Today, U.S. Special Forces use motorcycles, including some commercial models.

Motorcycles are fast and agile – As actor Steve McQueen showed in the World War II movie The Great Escape, it's a cool epitome. But are motorcycles instead of tanks? Skeptics may prefer to trade cooling to ensure the safety of two-foot armor plates; armor and heavy guns of tanks and infantry fighting vehicles are designed to punch holes through defense lines.

Nevertheless, Ukrainian Russian troops are using motorcycles instead of armored vehicles, which hang tanks to provide fire support instead of being a pioneer in attacks. The driving force behind this idea is not a desperate innovation. “Russia’s increased use of motorcycles is adaptation to Ukrainian drones’ strikes on Russian armored vehicles and the unsustainable losses of armored vehicles suffered by Russian forces in 2023 and 2024,” according to a new report by researchers at the American War Institute, a new report from the American War Institute.

Even Ukraine (Ukraine) seems to have repeatedly faced suicide attacks by Russian infantry – seemingly shocked by the attacks on bicycles. A Ukrainian military spokesman said the idea “sounds interesting.” However, the Russian army believed that the motorcycle was fast enough to break through Ukraine's location, enough to penetrate into terrain where tanks were inaccessible, and enough to escape drones that helped destroy 10,000 Russian armored vehicles. “These attacks are very large: from twelve to one hundred motorcycles,” a Ukrainian spokesman said. “They think that in this way, they can quickly overcome the terrain and reach the Ukrainian position – faster than drones can reach. If not, a motorcycle is spent on a drone.”

ISW analysts cite reports on the creative use of motorcycles in Russia. “Russian motorcyclists are currently attacking with pillars of eight electronic warfare (EW)-backed motorcycles, and Russian soldiers carry EW systems on the front, center and pillars to protect the motorcycle from Ukrainian drones,” said a Ukrainian soldier near the town of Pokrovsk. “The electronic warfare system may trick nearby drones, or fight for their controlled frequency with noise.

Another soldier said: “Each Russian motorcycle has two riders – one driver and one gunman – if the Ukrainian drone operator kills only one rider, Russian troops will continue to attack the motorcycle.”

Russia may now be turning to motorcycle troops for batting tactics, or a quick way to occupy Ukrainian territory on the teeth of machine guns and killer drones. “Russian forces may see a tactical opportunity to use motorcycles and civilian vehicles to advance and seize as much Ukrainian territory as possible,” ISW warned.

Interestingly, ISW believes that the new motorcycle tactics originated not from the Russian High Command, but were improvised by desperate frontline troops that suffered horrible casualties from drone strikes. “The use of Russian motorcycles seems to have begun to be a grassroots tactical response to Ukrainian drone operations, which is comparable to Russia's own informal front-line drone units,” ISW said. Some observers have even found videos of Russian soldiers riding scooters.

Now, Russia's Ministry of Defense is trying to formally organize a motorcycle operation. This includes the establishment of a bicycle training center in Russia and the integration of motorcycle units into conventional Russian combat formations. This could be a more efficient way to spread the concept to all units in Ukraine and to future wars. But this may also kill innovations due to rigidity in military innovation. “The Russian Ministry of Defense may be able to better provide Russian units with more centralized systems of motorcycles, but the Ministry of Defense may also severely limit the ability of Russian motorcycle riders to adapt to the new frontline reality,” ISW noted.

Whether combat motorcycles will become a characteristic of modern warfare remains to be seen. If drones and missiles continue to turn tanks into death traps, then maybe the tiny motorcycle does offer a better chance of survival. On the other hand, the armor plate is bulletproof and the leather jacket does not.

Michael Peck is a defense writer whose work has appeared in Forbes, Defense News, Foreign Policy magazine and other publications. He holds a Master of Political Science from Roger University. Follow him twitter and LinkedIn.

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