CHARGING UP: ELECTRIC VEHICLES FOR THE MILITARY STILL A PIPEDREAM.

• Author: Tadjdeh, Yasmin

The Army for years has been making investments into the electrification of vehicles, but the widespread use of such technology won't be feasible until the 2030s--or perhaps ever.

In a sprawling study, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, said battlefields of the future will require the Army to invest in a mix of energy sources, including jet propellant 8, diesel and renewable diesel, but all-electric vehicles are not yet practical--at least through 2035.

The study--which was sponsored by the deputy assistant secretary of the Army for research and technology--tasked the Academies' Committee on Powering the U.S. Army of the Future to analyze the energy needs of dismounted soldiers, manned and unmanned vehicles, and forward operating bases on future multi-domain battlefields.

The report--which was unveiled in June--examined technological innovations regarding energy storage, power conversion and fuel efficiency.

Despite the Army showing interest in electric vehicles, the study, "Powering the U.S. Army of the Future," noted that allelectric ground combat platforms and tactical supply vehicles are not practical now or in the foreseeable future.

Several reasons accounted for its findings.

First, the energy density of batteries today is roughly two orders of magnitude less than JP-8, the report said. That results in excessive package weight and volume to meet maneuver requirements.

"Advances in battery energy density will undoubtedly take place, but not enough to offset that magnitude of a disadvantage," the report noted.

Additionally, recharging all-electric vehicles in a short period of time would require massive quantities of electric power that are not available on the battlefield, the study said.

"We believe that electrification of ground vehicles is highly desirable," said John Luginsland, the committee's co-chair and senior scientist and principal investigator at Confluent Sciences.

"There are all kinds of advantages in terms of torque ... as well as fuel efficiency," he said during a webinar unveiling the report. However, the committee concluded that the service's future inventory "should be hybrid-electric vehicles with internal combustion engines, not all battery electric vehicles."

While commercial vehicle companies have made strides in electric technology, the military has unique challenges, said John Szafranski, division chief for vehicle electrification at the Army's Ground Vehicle Systems Center.

With "silent watch and the off-road usage, we would typically consume twice the energy of an equivalent commercial vehicle," he said in an interview with National Defense. "That means that with the battery technology today, we wouldn't meet our range requirement or operational duration requirement."

Recharging would also be a major obstacle for electric platforms...