Russian soldiers are replacing tanks with motorcycles

Even before armies used tanks, they were using motorcycles. In 1916, US troops on motorcycles chased Mexican bandit Pancho Villa (who also used motorized bikes in his raids). In World War II, couriers zoomed all over the front carrying messages, while German reconnaissance units even used sidecar motorcycles armed with machine guns. Today, US special forces use motorbikes, including some commercial models.

Motorcycles are fast, nimble — and as actor Steve McQueen showed in the World War II movie “The Great Escape” — the epitome of cool. But replacing tanks with motorcycles? Skeptics might prefer to trade coolness for the security of two-feet of armor plate; tanks and infantry fighting vehicles have armor and heavy guns designed to punch through defensive lines.

Nonetheless, Russian troops in Ukraine are using motorbikes instead of armored vehicles, with tanks hanging back to provide fire support rather than serve as the vanguard of the attack. The impetus for the idea is less innovation than desperation. “Russia’s increased use of motorcycles is an adaptation in response to pervasive Ukrainian drone strikes against Russian armored vehicles and the unsustainable armored vehicle losses that Russian forces suffered in late 2023 and 2024,” according to a new report by researchers at the Institute for the Study of War, a US think tank.

Even Ukraine — which has repeatedly faced suicide assaults by Russian infantry — seemed stunned by biker assaults. The idea “sounds funny,” said a Ukrainian military spokesman. Yet Russian troops believe that motorcycles are fast enough to storm Ukrainian positions, light enough to infiltrate through terrain inaccessible to tanks, and agile enough to evade the drones that have helped destroy 10,000 Russian armored vehicles. “These assaults are quite large-scale: from a dozen to a hundred motorcycles,” the Ukrainian spokesman said. “They believe that in this way they can quickly overcome the terrain and reach Ukrainian positions — faster than a drone can reach them. And if not — then one motorcycle is spent on one drone.”

ISW analysts cite several reports of Russia making creative use of motorbikes. A Ukrainian soldier fighting near the town of Pokrovsk said, “Russian motorcyclists are currently attacking in columns of eight motorcycles with electronic warfare (EW) support and that Russian servicemembers carry EW systems at the front, center, and end of the columns to protect the motorcycles from Ukrainian drone strikes.” Electronic warfare systems can fool nearby drones or scramble their control frequencies with noise.

Another soldier said, “Each Russian motorcycle has two riders — a driver and a gunner — and that Russian forces continue attacking on the motorcycle in the event that Ukrainian drone operators only kill one rider.”

Russia may now be turning to motorcycle-borne troops for hit-and-run tactics, or as a quick way to seize Ukrainian territory in frontal attacks in the teeth of machine guns and killer drones. “Russian forces likely see a tactical opportunity in leveraging motorcycles and civilian vehicles to advance and seize as much Ukrainian territory as possible ahead of possible ceasefire or peace negotiations,” ISW warned.

Interestingly, ISW believes the new motorcycle tactics did not originate with the Russian high command, but rather were improvised by desperate front-line troops who have suffered horrendous casualties from drone strikes. “Russian motorcycle usage appears to have begun as a grassroots tactical response to Ukrainian drone operations, comparable to how Russia’s own informal frontline drone units began,” said ISW. Some observers have even spotted videos of Russian soldiers riding electric scooters.

Now Russia’s Ministry of Defense is trying to formally organize motorcycle operations. This includes setting up bike training centers in Russia, as well as integrating motorcycle units into regular Russian combat formations. This may be a more efficient way of spreading the concept across all the units in Ukraine, as well as any future wars. But it could also stifle innovation in a military hobbled by rigidity. “The Russian MoD may be able to better supply Russian units with motorcycles under a more centralized system, but the MoD may also significantly constrain Russian motorcyclists’ ability to adapt to new frontline realities,” ISW noted.

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

Michael Peck is a defense writer whose work has appeared in Forbes, Defense News, Foreign Policy magazine, and other publications. He holds an MA in political science from Rutgers Univ. Follow him on Twitter and LinkedIn.

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