A regiment of the Australian army is trialling stealth reconnaissance e-bikes. The 2nd/14th Light Horse Regiment of the Queensland Mounted Infantry says the bikes have improved its capability to, “scout for information while remaining under the detection threshold.”

First things first: these aren’t 15.5km/h e-bikes. They’re high-powered off-road speed pedelecs. A video shows the bikes in use and, let’s be honest, there ain’t a whole lot of pedalling going on.

The bikes have a top speed of around 90km/h and can cover 100km between charges. Crucially, they’re pretty quiet too.

The regiment says the “electric pushies” allow reconnaissance soldiers to move quickly and quietly throughout the battlefield, generating less noise and dust compared to traditional motorcycles.

> Buying and riding an S-pedelec in the UK

The bikes are currently deployed from the army’s Boxer combat reconnaissance vehicle and are often used for sighting routes to check the larger vehicle can get through.

“It allows us to do safe-handing of information,” said Corporal Thomas Ovey, one of the first soldiers to test the e-bikes. “Whether that’s information people have found on the battlefield, or even if one of the troops takes photos on their phone and wants to send it back to headquarters.

“They’ll call us up, we’ll get the stealth bikes out, head down there and grab the information. It’s a lot quicker.

“We cover more ground much faster, and it saves time instead of waiting for troops to come to us when they’ve found something. It’s easier to punch out the e-bikes and return.”

A report on the stealth reconnaissance e-bikes capability will be delivered by the end of the year.