The U.S. Army’s Ground Vehicle Systems Center is developing new batteries to help the service transition to hybrid and fully electric vehicles as part of efforts to give more operational flexibility to warfighters, Breaking Defense reported Thursday.
“As we start to go into our tactical vehicles, we believe that those can be electrified pretty easily in that 2050 period of time,” Laurence Toomey, branch chief for the energy storage team at the service’s GVSC, told the publication in an interview.
The center is working on a 6T Lithium-Ion battery and Toomey said the battery will be deployed in the “near-term” to Stryker, Mobile Protected Firepower and Joint Light Tactical Vehicle programs.
Toomey said such batteries would allow soldiers to carry out longer duration missions and enhance anti-idling capabilities while the engine is off.
He noted that GVSC is also working on the Modular High Voltage battery for hybrid vehicle applications and plans to begin research work on the Extreme Energy High Voltage battery program in fiscal year 2023.
