The US Army is currently developing a hoverbike

Modern warfare looks set to become a lot more like a scene from Return Of The Jedi if this invention comes to production. 

The hoverbike has been a pipe dream of the US Army since the fifties, with top military officials chasing after an effective ways to transport individual soldiers across terrain quickly, safely and quietly. In fact, inventors even gave the idea a shot, and gave the concept a suitably boring working title: 'Tactical Reconnaissance Vehicle'. Not 'Flying Speed Blaster'. Not 'Levitation Destructor 3000'. Not 'Floating Death Beast'. But 'Tactical Reconnaissance Vehicle'. Kinda no surprise, really, that the military lost interest in the project and it dropped off the radar. 

Now, it seems, the dream might be in the process of actually being realised once again. 

Keeping up with the utterly disappointing name thing, the States are going with JTARV for their latest punt at an army hoverbike. Do not get excited as to what JTARV could stand for - it's Joint Tactical Aerial Resupply Vehicle. Not even "Rotor-minator"? Please, someone fire the man in charge of naming cool stuff immediately. 

Regardless of its crappy name, the idea behind the new toy, which is best described as looking like a rectangular quadcopter, is kinda cool. "Anywhere on the battlefield, soldiers can potentially get resupplied in less than 30 minutes," said Army researcher Tim Vong. "We're working with users in the joint community to look at this concept."

You'll catch a glimpse of the beast-in-making at 0:55 in the video below: