The US Army has long tinkered with the idea of making some of its vehicles electric or hybrid, and while the technology has become commonplace in the commercial vehicle industry, the service has yet to jump on the bandwagon.<\/p>\n
As officials hedge their bets, companies have continued to put technology in front of the service in order to show the purported benefits, arguing that the technology is ready for prime time in the Army\u2019s modernization plans.<\/p>\n
MACK Defense has brought a commercial, fully electric, medium-duty truck to the Association of the U.S. Army\u2019s annual conference this week to keep the conversation about hybrid capabilities with the service going, the company\u2019s CEO David Hartzell told Defense News.<\/p>\n
Bringing the truck represents MACK\u2019s overall push to prove that hybrid technology is ready for military prime time, Hartzell said. The company is participating in the U.S. Army\u2019s competition for a new Common Tactical Truck and, while it is not a requirement for the CTT to have hybrid power, it is the only competitor to build hybrid prototypes for evaluation.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a vehicle customers can come and buy today. They\u2019re operating on streets around the country today,\u201d Hartzell said.<\/p>\n
General Dynamics Land Systems again has brought a hybrid-electric Stryker combat vehicle to the show designed to be a command post where silent watch is a critical component achieved by turning off the engine but still powering communications equipment.<\/p>\n
GM Defense is featuring a diesel-powered, electric Next Generation Tactical Vehicle at AUSA as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cGM has invested billions into battery technology, battery plants to drive the cost of batteries down, to drive the size of batteries smaller, lighter and the power up,\u201d JD Johnson, GM Defense vice president of business development, told Defense News during a trip to Milford Proving Ground, Michigan.<\/p>\n
Defense News drove the new tactical vehicle, which uses the Chevy Silverado truck with the same Duramax engine in the U.S. Army\u2019s Infantry Squad Vehicle, paired with an electric battery capable of producing roughly 300-kilowatt hours of power output with a 15-gallon fuel tank. The vehicle still takes JP-8, the fuel choice of comfort for the U.S. Army.<\/p>\n
GM Defense had wanted to compete in an Army competition to build an Electric Light Reconnaissance Vehicle. The Army said it was ready to start a prototyping program last fall, but that program was abruptly canceled.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think one of the challenges out there is there is still not a lot of understanding and knowledge in this space,\u201d said Pete Johnson, GM Defense vice president of business development for integrated vehicles.<\/p>\n
Company executives hope the Next-Generation Tactical Vehicle prototype can help address lingering concerns.<\/p>\n
The Army has evaluated the possibility of converting even combat vehicles like the Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicle for hybrid propulsion, an effort led by the service\u2019s Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office.<\/p>\n
Industry teams now designing a Bradley replacement, dubbed the XM30 Mechanized Infantry Combat Vehicle, bank on hybrid capability in their proposals, though nothing is expected to come to fruition until the 2030s.<\/p>\n
The Army maintains that just because it hasn\u2019t fully committed to hybrid capabilities in tactical or combat vehicles doesn\u2019t mean the service is disinterested.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not a hard sell to anyone in the Army,\u201d Army acquisition chief Doug Bush told Defense News. \u201cI think wheeled vehicles is our biggest opportunity. It\u2019s the same exact tech that\u2019s all over the commercial sector now. A lot of people drive these cars. It\u2019s becoming kind of normal.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Army is \u201cjust working on carving out the money to do it,\u201d Bush said. \u201cWheeled vehicle is a thing that we\u2019ve been challenged to maintain really high production rates on, and it\u2019s just competing with a lot of other needs in the Army,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
While the investment is significant up front, \u201cthe long-term payoff, even a 10-15% fuel reduction, multiplied times a bazillion vehicles, is huge,\u201d Bush said. \u201cIf we do this right, it\u2019ll free up money down the road because we\u2019re being more efficient with the vehicles.\u201d<\/p>\n
The capabilities a hybrid vehicle would bring are also becoming increasingly important in the modern battlefield where silent watch and silent drive help U.S. troops evade detection by increasingly sophisticated sensors.<\/p>\n
\u201cIndustry is doing so much good research in this area, we don\u2019t have to develop it,\u201d Bush said. \u201cWe just need to make sure it\u2019s safe.\u201d<\/p>\n
But introducing the technology to the Army\u2019s vast inventory of ground vehicles still comes with challenges, according to Maj. Gen. Glenn Dean, program executive officer for ground combat systems.<\/p>\n
\u201cHybrid brings a bunch of things: extended range from the same amount of fuel, silent drive, the ability to export power or to use generated power differently to provide more mission capability,\u201d Dean said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe challenge going back to the current fleet is it\u2019s very expensive to do the equivalent of a heart transplant on a combat vehicle like that,\u201d Dean said. For the Stryker program, for example, it cost $450 million and took eight years just to upgrade an engine and power train.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd that\u2019s a much simpler problem than converting a vehicle from purely internal combustion to hybrid-electric,\u201d Dean explained.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would love to have hybrid-electric projects on all of our combat platforms, but the reality is we probably can\u2019t afford to do that, so we have to be very pointed in where we apply it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
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