BRITISH scientists have invented a high-speed “Bat rope” to allow special forces soldiers to climb high buildings or cliffs at more than 10ft a second.

The device, demonstrated for the first time last week, works by firing a small rocket carrying a grapple hook attached to a winding motor. At the press of a button the user can ascend the rope and then come down just as quickly.

The rope, known as Upstart, was commissioned by the Pentagon and is being studied by British special forces as well as the Metropolitan police and coastguards.

In addition to being used for SAS-style operations, it could be used by the police in hostage sieges or for complex rescues on cliff faces. The Upstart is similar to a gadget used in the Batman films when the superhero fires his rope up the sides of buildings and winches himself up at high speed.

“This wouldn’t have been possible even a few months ago,” said Ken Pink, the inventor of Upstart and an engineer at Qinetiq, formerly the government’s defence research agency. “We’ve been able to get a huge charge from a new battery and combined it with a motor from our bomb-disposal robot to get a prototype device that shoots a person up a 100ft rope in 10 seconds.”

The Upstart, demonstrated at the Defence Systems & Equipment International exhibition in London’s Docklands, can carry up to 400lb, enabling it to lift a special forces soldier carrying full equipment or a rescued hostage.

The device will help to overcome one of the most difficult obstacles in military operations. The time it takes to climb a rope or scale a ladder leaves soldiers highly vulnerable to attack. Special forces have tried to resolve the problem by dropping on to rooftops by helicopter to attack a building by abseiling down from above.

The new technology could offer a quieter and simpler way than a helicopter to reach the top of a building. Pink said that a single operative would be able to fix several ropes in place and harness them to soldiers on the ground. With the touch of a button they would be pulled up, reaching a maximum speed of 12ft a second. Soldiers could have their weapons at the ready as soon as they reached their target.

Unlike the Batman device, which was fired by hand in the film, the current version of Upstart uses a freestanding launcher.

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