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The Canadian military has been secretly test-driving a $620,000 stealth snowmobile in its quest to quietly whisk troops on clandestine operations in the Arctic.

The Canadian Press has learned that soldiers have taken the new hybrid-electric snowmobile prototype on trial runs to evaluate features such as speed, noise level, battery endurance and acceleration.

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The Department of National Defence even has a nickname for its cutting-edge, covert tool: “Loki,” after the “mythological Norse shape-shifting god.”

I can’t help but wonder whether they’ve been watching too many (James) Bond movies

Word of the federal hunt for a stealth snowmobile first surfaced two years ago when National Defence’s research and development agency posted a public tender.

That 2011 tendering document, however, offered few details on the future of these missions, except for the top priority: silence.

The project kicked off at a time when the Conservative government was laying out promises to boost Canada’s military muscle in the Far North, in a once-vaunted package of Canadian Forces upgrades the feds have largely failed to implement.