foto: Redakce/Flyer 72 na Bahnech 2024
At this year's Ground Forces Day of the Czech Army, BAHNA 2024, we had the honor of speaking with retired Colonel Robert C. Rice of the USMC, who now works with FLYER Defense, founded in 2011. FLYER Defense showcased its light assault vehicle, the FLYER 72, specifically designed for U.S. special forces.
We are here with Colonel Robert C. Rice from the USMC, now with FLYER Defense, sitting in the FLYER vehicle. Can you introduce the vehicle and tell us what's special about it?
Yeah, I appreciate the opportunity to talk to you guys. Just for the record, I'm a colonel retired from the Marine Corps and when I retired I joined FLYER Defense and it's really a great company to be able to work with because of this vehicle. This is the only thing we make.
It's a purpose-built combat vehicle. It is designed to meet US Special Operations Command requirements. What are those? That is that it fits inside a CH-47 or CH-53 for internal transportation. It is also very good for airdrop, air delivery, designed to be able to be parachuted in. But really what's very unique about this vehicle is the payload capacity. So this vehicle is about 3,300 kilos. I have room to add 2,500 kilos worth of cargo. So it's people, weapons, radios. That's how much extra weight you can add to this vehicle, which is really unique for this size and this class of vehicle. Then obviously as you can tell it's a very high mobile off-road vehicle. Very good in any sort of terrain.
Can you explain the special features of the vehicle's landings and how it maintains mobility for quick deployment into action?
Yeah like I said it's a very deployable vehicle. It fits in all the tactical aircraft that you have. Fixed wing, C-130, C-17, all that stuff. But it's designed to be able to be airdropped by parachute. But it can also be done by helicopter. So like I said, CH-47 it fits inside it.
Why is it Flyer “72” ? 72 means 72 inches tall, 72 inches wide. Which is that I mentioned the need to fit inside a helicopter for internal transportation. You also can easily sling load it to hang it below a helicopter and insert it that way. So it's a very insertable vehicle.
We're sitting inside, and it has a very special layout, especially the driver seats. Can you tell us some of its features?
What's unique about this vehicle too is that it's center drive and the engine is not in front of me. The engine is behind me. It's a center rear engine. There is a couple things that it does for you. It's like a race car. Like a Formula One car. The driver can focus, see both sides evenly and he's focused out front. Normally if you're in a regular vehicle in a combat you're driving on the side and you're worried about your security. Here in the middle you and my other friend have the security of my sides. I can just focus on driving. Each door has a pedal mount. You can put a machine gun on it. So you have a lot of ability for local security. And the center rear engine changes the center gravity of the vehicle. It makes it very stable. It's a very stable vehicle overall, which helps with the cross-country mobility.
Could you please tell us a bit about the vehicle's performance and which armies currently use it?
This vehicle was initially designed for US Special Forces. They had originally taken the Humvee and they had modified it for Special Forces needs. And it was still not quite meeting their requirements. So they opened up a competition for a new vehicle. And this vehicle was designed for that competition. And so its origins is to meet their requirements of US Special Forces.
And what are those requirements? The requirements were to be able to be internally transportable in a helicopter. And so this vehicle is 72 inches wide, 72 inches tall. It fits inside the CH-47 and 53. Also had to be highly cross-country, very mobile. But also be able to take a lot of payload. So this vehicle is 3,300 kilos. But you can add 2,500 kilos worth of cargo payload. Whether it's weapons, people, equipment, radios. So all that is very unique for a vehicle of this size.
What countries use it? So originally the US Special Forces. Primarily the Special Forces groups, the Green Berets as they're known. Since then we've sold the vehicle to the United Arab Emirates. The Presidential Guard uses it. The Israeli Defense Forces uses it. The Italian Armed Forces use it. And very soon hopefully the Czech Armed Forces as well. Which is why we're here.
What do you think was the biggest test for the vehicle?
This was a very sensibly tested vehicle for US Special Operations. Normally they take a vehicle from the Army or the Marine Corps and they modify it. The first time they did it by themselves. And so it had a lot of testing. But I always think the real test is how the vehicle performs in combat or in operations. And this vehicle has been in Iraq and Syria as part of Special Operations. And it's it's performed very well.
Could you tell us some of the most important design features?
I think what's also special about this vehicle's design is that oftentimes vehicle in this class you take an existing vehicle, a Jeep, a Land Rover, something. And you modify it for your purposes. You take a civilian vehicle and you make it like the GM defense vehicle. There's a Chevy Colorado right. This is designed from the ground up with the soldier in mind. And we take input from the from the operators. So even after we sell a vehicle we continue to stay in touch. We get more and more input and we make modifications, engineering changes.
So this vehicle is really inspired and designed and modified by the operators, by the end-users. And for the future we're starting to take a look at hybrid electric powertrains. We're looking at that kind of technology which isn't just about environmental purposes. It's also good tactics, quieter, provides more energy, more power on the battlefield, less requirements for generators, less requirement to push fuel forward. So we're looking at that as a future technology to incorporate with this vehicle as well.
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