![]() ![]() The focus on electrifying the Army’s fleet is reflected in its expanding budget. By 2035, it plans to field a hybrid tactical vehicle and run a fully electric non-tactical fleet. The Army wants to field a fully electric tactical vehicle by 2050, and to develop the charging capability to meet those vehicles’ needs by the same date, according to its 2022 climate plan. The Army does have electric non-tactical Army vehicles at camps and stations to perform tasks such as moving supplies. Ross Coffman, who heads up the Army Futures Command’s next generation combat vehicle team.Įlectrification may be possible for support vehicles in the rear, but “as far as large, heavy vehicles that can take a punch and throw a punch, the amount of batteries required to do that over great distances-and the ability to charge quickly-is a challenge for us,” Coffman said.įor now, the Army is focused on developing hybrid combat vehicles, which it thinks are “attainable, useful, and can reduce our sustainment footprint,” he said, though no hybrids are deployed in the field either, Coffman said. ![]() “Ideally, we would be able to go to a full electric vehicle, but currently the technology does not exist to generate, store, and distribute power in a tactically relevant amount of time for the frontline troops,” said Lt. To charge a 50-ton tracked combat vehicle inside the Army’s preferred envelope of 15 minutes, soldiers would need a 17-megawatt charging station-more than 20 times bigger than the largest mobile generator the Army currently has, said Dean McGrew, branch chief for powertrain electrification at the US Army DEVCOM Ground Vehicle Systems Center. The technological challenges mean not a single all-electric fighting vehicle is currently deployed in the field, with the Defense Department hoping intense interest in scaling up batteries for consumer and utility sectors will lead to breakthroughs for the battlefield. ![]() The military’s grand vision of an all-electric fleet of tanks is being stymied by a battery sector that’s not even close to delivering the power the Army needs, according to two Pentagon officials. ![]()
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