The Army is looking to make its Next-Generation Combat Vehicles (NGCV) all electric but is still grappling with current battery and fuel cell capability gaps that don’t meet requirements for fast charging and improved power density.
Bruce Brendle, a deputy executive director for Army Research, Development and Engineering Command, said officials are looking for industry solutions to create an NGCV electrification architecture that will allow the future vehicles to run longer with fewer fuel resupplies and boost onboard system power capabilities.
“The Army recognizes this as one of their priorities, in terms of next-generation combat vehicle, and they have funding set aside. For fiscal years 2020 through 2024 there’s about $200 million put against these technologies in order to develop and demonstrate the architectures that will allow our Army’s combat vehicles to be electric systems,” Brendle told attendees Thursday at a National Defense Industrial Association event. “As we look at these future systems, we can’t really ignore what industry has been doing in the commercial automotive industry in the area of electrification. There’s been tremendous amounts of investment.”
NGCV is one of the Army’s six modernization priorities with plans to deliver a new robotic combat vehicle and optionally manned vehicle to potentially replace its Bradley fighting vehicles and Abrams tanks.
Brendle said moving to electric systems will meet long held Army goals to have quieter vehicles able to meet higher power demands for more sophisticated radars and directed energy weapons.
“The Army wants to be more expeditionary. With electrification you would have a high amount of power generation for onboard systems, like directed energy weapons and high-powered radar systems, or electrified armors,” Brendle said.
Moving away from current fueling systems to an electric approach would reduce vehicle’s thermal and audio signature, enable improved silent mobility and extend drive duration without resupply, according to Brendle.
A first step for NGCV will include moving to hybrid power systems while industry continues to mature fuel cell and electrification architecture technology.
Brendle said he anticipates the Army will require hybrid power technologies that increases power density capabilities up to 12 kilowatts per liter, four times the level that’s currently available.
Once the Army moves NGCV to all-electric, Brendle also anticipates a need to reach a 60x improvement in charge rates. Brendle said the Department of Energy is currently leading efforts to develop fast charging capabilities.
“Our current technology is a 100 kw tactical generator. We need to get up to 6 mws of power to do 30 minutes recharging. That might not even be acceptable to the user. But there’s tremendous government-only focus on charging,” Brendle said.
The Army wants to eventually go 300 miles on a single charge with a full set of batteries with an NGCV.
“We’re looking at getting the power density from .15 kW/L, that’s kind of what you’d see on a Chevy Volt or a Tesla, up to a range of at least .6. That’s going to force us to go other technologies beyond lithium ion,” Brendle said.