Army Researchers Tackling Soldier Power Problems.

• Author: Tadjdeh, Yasmin

Army scientists and researchers are taking on a perennial problem for soldiers on the battlefield powering up the many devices they are required to carry.

In recent years, troops have had to lug more and more devices in their rucksacks, from radios to remote controls to tablets, which has resulted in increased soldier load. To tackle the issue, the Army's Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Cyber, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance --or C5ISR--Center is investing in new battery and power management technologies that officials hope will unburden warfighters and improve efficiency.

The C5ISR Center's power management branch --which is nestled under the Army's Combat Capabilities Development Command --is developing cutting edge tactical systems that can be handheld or soldier-worn.

Dr. Ashley Ruth, a research chemical engineer at the center, noted that power is a crosscutting technology that is relevant across each of the Army's six modernization priorities that Futures Command has been spearheading for the past three years. These include long-range precision fires; next-generation combat vehicles; future vertical lift; the network; air-and-missile defense; and soldier lethality.

"Power is instrumental for all of these," Ruth said during an interview with National Defense. "Every single weapon system needs power."

The office is developing a myriad of new technologies, including its small tactical universal battery system, an interoperable family of batteries that will enable standardization for soldierworn and handheld equipment, officials said.

As the Army has outfitted soldiers with modernized systems over the past several years, "we've really seen where these different pieces of equipment would tend to bring their own either proprietary or unique power sources onto the battlefield," said Dr. Nathan Sharpes, a research mechanical engineer with the C5ISR Center. "We were seeing this future where a soldier is going to have to carry 10 different types of batteries ... even though they all push the same electrons."

All these systems may have slightly different user interfaces and feature varying voltages and chemistries, he noted.

It's difficult to pin down how many batteries the typical soldier carries today, Sharpes said. What an infantryman carries will be different from what a radio operator has on hand.

It's hard to even grasp how many of these types of technologies the Army has in its inventory, Ruth added. "In fact...