Telescoping hook, fast ascender offer access tools for special forces troops

Sneaking around silently and unnoticed is a primary skill set for a Special Operations Warrior

But what happens when you get to the destination? You've got to get in somehow to reach the target

Whether it's a ship at sea or a house in a city, there are tools to help

We looked at some interesting new options at SoftWeek 2025. So I'm here at Skylo Tech at the Global Soft Foundation SoftWeek in Tampa, Florida

We're looking at ways that Marines, SEALs, and MARSOC Raiders might be able to get on a boat

So, Richie, can you tell us a little bit about what I'm looking at here? This is the Skylotech Neptune Pole

Its entire intention is to conduct VBSS operations. What's a VBSS operation

So, vessel boarding, search and seizure. And what this pole is, is it's a six-piece carbon fiber tube set that's meshed together

and there's a variety of different hook configurations that you can use depending on what the end user is trying to accomplish

So the way we have it configured right now, this is our Sierra hook

It's a fully titanium hook that's rated to over 2,500 pounds of direct load

And then the arch load is, I want to say, over 4,000 pounds. So you can have up to four operators climbing whatever net or ladder configuration you're using

and it can support that. When you're transiting in the boat, you would have this in some sort of

horizontal configuration, stow it away. And then once it's time to actually do the boarding

you'd have a ladder man and a pole man. You extend the hook out with a throttle here

and then you can have a ton of precision when it comes to accurately enplacing the hook

and then once the hook is set if you want to be my ladder man you can come over here pull

directly down on that ladder so now you've released the pole from the system this goes out

of the way and your guys can start climbing so the more precise and controlled way to accurately

get to the top of the ship or to the side of the ship where you need to place that hook

absolutely yeah and the the speed and the control you have with this device is really not even

comparable If you especially if you on a on a ship or a fast boat you know in heavy sea state the ability to you know manipulate the tip of this pole and have rapid employment and then you can go back up and down you know you can put this hook

exactly where you need it every single time so this doesn't look quite big enough as it is to

get to the top of a ship what different sizes does this come in so this is a demo unit specifically

made for trade shows but this pole will come in a 12 meter size a 16 meter size and a 20 meter length

How much does this something like this weigh? So a 12-meter version would weigh 35 pounds

A 16 is 42 and a half, roughly. And then the 20 meters, 50 pounds

So one person can't pick this hole up and move it around. Man-portable, a single person can carry it, two people can use it, and three people can

climb at a time or more. Yeah, you can get four people on the ladder at a time, depending on the ladder

We've got some other kit we're going to check out, so let's go check that out. Absolutely. So a lot of boarding anything requires some climbing, whether it's a rock ledge or a ship

I'm familiar with the traditional mechanical ascenders you pull and just haul yourself up a row

But what am I looking at here? This is the Skylotec TCX-2 Seal Assault version of a power ascender

We have a full series of power ascenders that have different waterproofing ratings

So this version is an IP68, so it's diveable to 30 feet for four hours

This machine is tailored more for VBSS operations. So you can attach a 425 pounds of direct load to this point right here

And then this has over 200 feet a minute of ascent speed

So I can show that to you if you want to see it. So it'll ramp up, and then you can board the side of the ship very quickly

This is an encrypted Bluetooth frequency that will run up to 200 meters

So you can keep it controlled on the remote, or you can attach personnel directly to the machine

So if I didn't have one of these, how am I getting up that rope? Either with a ladder or ascending it manually with ascenders like we have over there

A little bit of an arm workout. Yeah. A lot of an arm workout Yeah Well I think we got one more thing we going to look at here We going to take off and check that out real quick I appreciate you showing this to us Yeah of course

So I'm here at Skylo Tech talking with Marcus about their breaching kit. Marcus, you got a lot of cool tools here

Can you tell me a little bit about what each of these does? Yeah, so this is some of the tools. Basically, we provide a pretty wide concept of different breaching tools

to like suit every different needs. So everything from like the heavy stuff

If you can bring the heavy stuff, you will have everything you need, but not all units can do that

Then we also have more compromised stuff like glide kits, tactical kits, or the collapsible tools, and even smaller stuff

So we provide different kits, pretty much. So you can kind of mix and match different pieces you need for the kit you need for that particular mission

You could. You could mix and match. We recommend that you stick with each kit

You could take one tool if you want to, but I recommend that you bring the kit

because when you bring in the kit, you will be able to bridge both in and out going doors

and pretty much no matter the quality of the door. So these are designed to bridge both like

wooden doors, plastic doors, PVC doors, but also steel doors and security doors, even with hook

locks and stuff, no matter if it's in and out going. And then you can choose like, yeah, I'm

going to be facing some really heavy duty doors. I'd rather bring the heavy stuff for this mission

if they can. So that's pretty much the function of the mechanical part, the mechanical tools

Then we also have like braking rakes for windows and again if the engineers don't necessarily need

to know what type of window it is. If it's floating glass, laminated hardened glass doesn't really

matter. You can breach it with our tools. So in this case we have a collapsible brake rake

If you want to store it in a vehicle in a more convenient way you can detach it

You can still use it as this one if you want to, but you can attach to get some leverage

get away from the window and so on. Why is it shaped like this? What's the design do for you

as you're breaking red glass? Yes, so the first thing you want to do with the window is punch a

hole to get access through the window. You could use the tip of it, of course, but if it's a very

hard glass, what might happen is when I'm striking it, it can fall like this. In that way, you can

you can use the backside as a first punch just to destroy the window

If you're using the backside, no matter which angle I coming in I will always have a sharp end hitting the window So that why we start with this end just smashing a hole bam Once I get the hole I can turn the tool like this

I put the tip behind the frame and then this will work as a saw, as a saw function

So I really can work intense with, I stay connected to the frame the whole time and

just clearing away all the glass fragments. Yeah. So instead of just pushing the glass away

just using it as a saw. Yeah. And that would really clear away the glass

as much as possible from the beginning. Because if you want to do an entry, you want it clean

It all comes kind of self-contained in its own pack. Can you tell us a little bit of features of the pack

and kind of how this all comes together? So in this case, here we have the heavy kit

This is approximately like 25 kilos. So it's heavy. But if you can carry it, you will have everything you need

You will have our P9, the big pry bar, with a long leverage, a thick head

to really separate the lock from the frame. You have a smaller pry bar

if you want something more convenient, like easier to carry, thinner head

And you also have the mini-ram. This was also work as a striking tool for the pry bars

If you have an out-ward going door, you strike them in and you breach. If the door is inward going, low quality

you can still ram it. If you're facing an outward going door

and you have an overlap that covers the gap between the door and the frame

so you really can't get in there. This tool, set it behind the overlap

You can do this silently and you remove the overlap. And now we have a straight highway

straight in between the door and the frame. So this is really a lifesaver when we need it

And I mean, bolt cutters, if there's something that needs to be cut

And a small sledgehammer. Well, do you mind, while this is unloaded

it's not going to hurt my aging back. Do you mind if I try this out and put it on? Absolutely, I'll help you

All right. All right. There you go. Not bad, not bad. That's not as heavy as I thought it'd be

And then you have the brake and rake for the windows. There you go

For when you forget your hotel room key, you can always brake and rake