It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s flying Royal Marine! The day in which soldiers will be able to fly into danger zone without any assistance from an aircraft is getting closer. Gravity Industries, which became a big blip into the radars of airsoft players when it demonstrated an shoulder mounted airsoft gun on someone with its jetpack has now put up a video showing a Royal Marine fly from a fast moving boat and land on another one in boarding exercise.

Gravity Industries was established by a Royal Marine reservist, Richard Browning, in 2017. The company is one a few unique companies working on jetpacks that will allow human flight from anywhere without the need to wait for an aircraft. For now, the development of jetpacks is being actively observed by militaries in the U.S.A and Europe due to the possibility of rapid deployment of troops using such flying contraptions.

In the exercise, a Royal Marine with a jetpack made it easier for a boarding crew by being the first to land on the ship and deployed for a rope ladder for the rest of the boarding party to climb up the bigger ship. He was also able to whip out a pistol to guard his area as he waits for his companion go unto the ship. Using one is already an effective way of being able to establish a position quickly, just imagine a squad or two of Royal Marines all with the jetpack. Landing in different locations will allow them to capture or commandeer the ship even quicker.

Watch the video as shared by the company below:

Thanks to Royal Marines LLC for setting up a very successful exercise testing the capability of the Gravity Jet Suit to support RM boarding ops. Huge effort from 42cdo, 47cdo, HMS Tamar, Qinetiq and DSTL. The footage speaks for itself.

Gravity Industries calls its jetpack as the “JetSuit” which uses over 1000bhp of jet engine power in combination with natural human balance for flight controls just like the Tony Stark’s Iron Man suit. The company has been demonstrating the JetSuit to audiences in many countries to show the benefits of their invention.

Apart from military applications, using jetpacks like the JetSuit has a lot of potential especially for first responders. Rescue personnel can quickly reach victims in hard to reach locations; firefighters can immediately go up several stories to bring their hoses to bear; and medical people can delivery vital supplies from one medical facility to another faster if the vehicular traffic won’t allow on time deliveries.

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Apart from Gravity Industries, Frenchman Franky Zapata has been developing his Flyboard, which others say has better use for military applications as it frees up the arms of the soldier allowing him/her to handle a weapon as compared to the JetSuit. The race is now on to see which military will be the first to adapt a jetpack.