Royal Marines Take to the Sky With Their New Jetpacks, Board Ships

The clip features three boarding exercises in which the soldiers are using the jet engine-powered suit to land on a nearby vessel after approaching it on a powerboat. In the first demonstration exercise, a marine gets to the ships' deck and drops a ladder over the side for the rest of the team to climb up.

In a second, he demonstrates the ability to move quickly back and forth between the ship and the inflatable boat. The soldier also pulls out a handgun to simulate a rapid infiltration mission. Lastly, three jet suit pilots land on the vessel one after another.

Gravity's jet suit uses more than 1,000 hp of thrust to reach a top speed of 37 mph (60 kph). Its speed and trajectory can be adjusted by changing the position of the wearer's arms. This new technology could significantly reduce the time needed for boarding a ship, aiding in combat or special missions.

The company has also worked in the past with U.K. ambulance services GNAAS to allow paramedics to reach remote areas in record time.

Over in the U.S., the American military has shown interest for jetpack technology recently, with DARPA looking specifically into how to incorporate it into a variety of military missions. The plan is to have such tech used to enable agility in urban combat, combat search and rescue, maritime interdiction, and special ops forces infiltration and exfiltration.

DARPA states in a document that it also plans to integrate "powered gliders, powered wingsuits and powered parafoils which could leverage emerging electric propulsion technologies, hydrogen fuel cells or conventional heavy fuel propulsion systems."

So, we expect to see more of these Iron Man-like special ops soldiers take to the sky in the near future.