Russia to Increase Use of Battlefield Buggies, Quad Bikes and Motorcycles

The military issues website Defense Express reported on comments made by Russia’s Minister of Defense, Andrey Belousov during a visit to a training area in the Leningrad Military District earlier this week, that plans were being made to establish buggy and all-terrain vehicle (ATV) tactical driving courses at military training centers.

Despite evidence that assaults on Ukrainian defensive positions employing motorcycles, ATVs and Buggies are being decimated Moscow still seems to see their use as a positive development.

In announcing the new training, Belousov was quoted as saying that the use of such vehicles was in great demand by troops on the battlefield where they have proved “successful and effective” in the carrying out of assaults, troop rotations, cargo delivery, medical evacuations, etc.

There are reports that Russian forces deploy mobile groups on ATVs and buggies to support first person video (FPV) drone operators because they feel they can move less conspicuously around the battlefield.

Defense Express said several pro-Kremlin milbloggers suggested that setting up driver courses meant Russia’s armed forces [were] transitioning to buggies and motorcycles.

Belousov’s announcement came on the same day that paratroopers from Ukraine’s 79th brigade posted video of how they repelled a large-scale Russian assault employing dozens of armored vehicles supported by ATVs and motorcycles near Kurakhove in the Donetsk region, inflicting yet more heavy casualties on the attackers.

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This was the second time a mass attack supported by motorcycles was turned back by the same unit. On July 24 a multi-directional assault using tanks and other armored vehicles that were taken out by artillery, bomber drones and landmines.

Historically Russia used lightweight mobile vehicles and motorcycles before abandoning their use around 2011 because they had no clear concept or doctrine for their use on operations.

The Russian military issues website TopWar reported in early July that new supplies of the Erofey lightweight all-terrain tactical vehicle, originally designed for use by Moscow’s special forces, had been received by Russian Combat Army Reserve (BARS) units deployed within the Zaporizhzhia region. According to Mikhail Degtyarev, the governor of the Khabarovsk Region, the vehicles are currently “undergoing combat testing.”

Degtyarev said that troops had found the vehicles to be excellent in terms of repairability, speed, and maneuverability and that while all Erofey vehicles received had deployed to the front line, orders had already been placed for yet more.