Ukraine’s Battlefield Scooters and the Micromobility Revolution

AFU

Well, that escalated quickly.

We’ve come a long way from the gimmicky e-scooter toys (whose Lithium batteries spontaneously combust under the Christmas tree) to ruggedized, silent, battlefield scooters for inserting snipers in Ukraine.

Now, Ukraine has just ordered a thousand electric scooters from Latvia. But make no mistake: These are battlefield vehicles, moving snipers, ammo, and even the wounded across some of the most dangerous terrain in Europe. Let’s break down how Global Wolf Motors of Latvia accidentally stumbled into the military micromobility revolution.

“Micromobility” is a new phrase in global security, (my Grammarly app keeps saying it’s misspelled because it’s not even in the dictionary yet) so let me explain what I believe it is: If the old way of mechanized warfare involved APCs and mine-protected vehicles, the new way is to give every soldier their own way to move around the front as an individual.

We’ve seen special operations and specialized formations use motorcycles and small ATVs in past wars for this purpose… But thanks to FPV drone saturation, this is really the first time that regular infantrymen each have their own toy to get from point A to point B.