Land operations


The entrance to Dstl’s Porton Down research facility in Salisbury.


airframes could double their capacity of combat and tactical vehicles.


A work in progress 20%


The maximum percentage of fuel savings demonstrated in TD6 trials.


Dstl $400


The cost per gallon of fuel used by US forces in Afghanistan.


US Congress Appropriations Defense Subcommittee


While the aim is for full electrification, the current steps appear to be more along what is already commercially available in the civilian sphere, and that is to study how HED vehicles can conceivably work in a military setting. In that vein, the UK Ministry of Defence’s Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) has been working with industry partners on the Technology Demonstrator 6 (TD6) project for the development of HED vehicles. So far, research involving TD6 have indicated that HED vehicles can increase fuel efficiency by up to 20%, improve automotive performance, better manage thermal and sound signatures, and can even act as portable power generators themselves, allowing vehicles to feed one another and other devices. Dstl is keen to stress that, currently, no nation has a HED military vehicle in service. This demonstrates that, despite more money being poured into the research and development of HED vehicles, the concept is still very much in its infancy and this is the case globally due to a number of logistical constraints that need to be addressed by smart technological solutions that simply do not currently exist. This has an impact on the logistical burden faced by armed forces, with a


Pentagon report to the US Congress indicating that each gallon of fuel transported to Afghanistan cost an eye-watering $400 – clearly making the case for a more advanced electric propulsion solution. There are a multitude of ways that this could look like on the modern battlefield, but each of those requires logistical solutions. “Realistically, I expect there will be a mix of hybrids and full electrics,” Ashbridge explains. “We can’t depend on full-electric realistically until we have concrete plans for deployable infrastructure – which is something that [UK] defence is working on. “Of course, deployable infrastructure suitable for EV charging to support these hybrid or fully electric vehicles must still be transported into theatre, so there is a logistical burden, but this burden is offset by the reduction in current pressure upon the logistics supply chain to maintain a supply of conventional fuels at the scale currently required. These benefits will be felt for the duration of a campaign or operation.” Clearly, though, not all battlefields are created equal. However much the military brass may try to hardwire contingencies into their plans, it can often be impossible for even the most high-tech deployable energy infrastructure solution to be used. “In certain environments, domestic electric infrastructure may not be accessible, and deployable infrastructure may not be appropriate. Here defence will defer to conventional fuels,” Ashbridge says, adding that, “Defence has the task of finding solutions for deployable infrastructure whilst also making decisions about which platforms will continue to be powered by conventional fuels as a means of minimising any risks to operability until that solution is found.”


Given that most military platforms are developed with an eye to them being in service for extended periods of time and not updated every single year like commercial vehicles, it is clear that the shift from conventional fuels to HED or fully electric vehicles will be a long work in progress. However, with all the benefits of electrification in the military domain in terms of maintaining more agile, leaner forces that are not dependent on fuels controlled by adversaries, it is becoming increasingly clear that there is little choice in the matter. ●


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Defence & Security Systems International / www.defence-and-security.com


Amani A; zuhdison art; The_Believer_art/Shutterstock.com


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