September 17, 2025: At least twice in the last 50 years, the U.S. Army has seriously experimented with motorcycle scouts in ground reconnaissance units. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, tests included mil-spec dirt bikes with highly effective engine mufflers. At the end of the 1990s, advocates of dragoon units (which later became Stryker wheeled armored vehicle units) suggested motorcycles might be useful. Yes, motorcycles and all-terrain vehicles (ATVs) have shown up in deployed airborne and light infantry units, including motor tricycles with small trailers.

The big picture for motorcycles? The budget powers concluded that the WWII experience still holds. Motorcycles have lots of mobility. They have speed. They can go off-road. But they offer zero protection from bullets and shrapnel. Soldiers on motorcycles anywhere near front lines are moving ducks—still dead ducks. Suicide terrorists can use them for suicide terror attacks, but cycle-borne conventional soldiers? Instant fodder for artillery and automatic weapons. Steve McQueen in The Great Escape gave the wrong impression. In sum, as combat military vehicles, motorcycles have agility but no combat resiliency—what is known as staying power.

Then, in the second decade of the 21st century (2014), Russia invaded Ukraine.

In the third decade, after February 2022’s all-out invasion, drones have grabbed headlines because Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have reinforced Ukrainian valor and stymied the Russian invasion. First Person View (FPV) drones, as loitering reconnaissance and attack systems, have forced belligerents to adapt their battlefield tactics. Heavy and light armored vehicles (e.g., tanks) are vulnerable to drones delivering overhead attacks on their engines or turrets. Drones have reduced armor’s combat staying power.

Apparently, the Ukrainians pioneered the use of motorcycles and small ATVs, but the Russians have also decided that small and agile vehicles have a strong chance of surviving on the drone-saturated battlefield.

Spanish and British military media point to an April 2024 Russian action at Pokrovsk as an example of a motorcycle-ATV exploitation. A Ukrainian motorcycle and ATV assault unit penetrated Russia’s Kursk Oblast in May 2024.

Motorcycles and ATVs are cheap and fast. Remember, cycles have mobility. They can duck off-road into terrain larger vehicles cannot enter. Trucks can haul a lot of freight, but they are big, easy to spot, and some are quite expensive. Tanks cost millions of dollars.

The Ukrainians have used a mix of ATVs and motorcycles to exploit penetrations in Russian lines. If that sounds like an old-time horse cavalry tactic, it is. A platoon of motorcycles and a squad of ATVs can move troops, ammo, and other supplies rapidly through woods and over fields, with a good chance of evading the notice and wrath of FPV drones.

However, both have no protection, which means motorcycle-ATV units have little to no combat staying power when heavy weapons come to bear.

War at the tactical level: a struggle of deadly trade-offs.