The future of electric vehicles is a hot topic, even in the Army.
That was evident by the House Armed Services Committee Tactical Air and Land Subcommittee’s recent request to hear testimony from Timothy Goddette, deputy assistant secretary of the Army for Acquisition Policy and Logistics and Michael Cadieux, director of U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command (DEVCOM) Ground Vehicle Systems Center (GVSC) at the Detroit Arsenal in Warren on the status of the army’s fleet of tactical wheeled vehicles (TWV) and its electric vehicle (EV) readiness.
The Army has more than 200,000 light, medium and heavy trucks in its fleet of TWVs.
During his testimony, Goddette brought Congress up to speed on the army’s current fleet and immediate priorities. Then he and Cadieux gave the subcommittee their perspectives on the possibility of introducing EV into the Army’s TWV fleet.
One area that will be a particular challenge for the military fielding a full EV fleet on the battlefield is the weight of the batteries and the lack of mobile recharging capabilities.
As a result, Goddette maintains the initial EV solution is likely to be a hybrid drive due to range requirements and payload.
Then there is the question of how many miles per charge.
“It has to go a lot further for us,” said Cadieux, during an interview at the Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition (IGVC) at Oakland University in Rochester Hills. Cadieux and several other members from DEVCOM Ground Vehicle Systems Center, who were on hand not only to observe but to judge the event that challenges college engineering student teams to design autonomous vehicles and compete in a variety of unmanned mobility competitions.
“It also has to meet extreme operational conditions – from the heat of the desert to the arctic cold,” Cadieux added.
Even so, there is technology in existence that could be used for the advancement of partial electrification solutions required by the army, said Cadieux, including anti-idle technology, powertrain modernization, and the ability to off-board power to reduce the need for tactical generators.
Cadieux told the committee that electrification-related technologies applied to the military’s fleet of light, medium, and heavy tactical wheeled vehicles have the potential to provide the ability to operate at longer distances without refueling, extended silent watch, and silent mobility through reduced acoustic and thermal signatures and improved dash speeds, additional onboard electrical power, and energy storage required for advanced sensors, integrated tactical network, and other future mission payloads, and exportable power generation and distribution.
“We certainly see operational capabilities that EV can provide as the technology in existence matures over time,” Cadieux said, while watching the engineering students demonstrate to the judges the maneuvering capabilities of the autonomous vehicles that they designed and built not only for the competition but for the future of intelligent mobility. For military systems, autonomous mobility will enable unmanned combat vehicles to perform high-risk operations and multiply the force effectiveness of many systems.
The competition, which sets goals that align with the objectives established by the Department of Defense, is supported and sponsored by the DEVCOM Ground Vehicle Systems Center at the Detroit Arsenal in Warren, which is the nation’s laboratory for advanced military automotive technology.
The DEVCOM Ground Vehicle Systems Center is one of eight science and technology domains within the command, which has the mission to ensure decisive overmatch for unified land operations to empower the Army, the joint warfighter, and the nation.
The center’s mission is to research, develop, engineer, leverage, and integrate advanced technology into ground systems and support equipment throughout the lifecycle.
More than 1,000 engineers, scientists, project and program managers, and technical experts at the DEVCOM Ground Vehicle Systems Center develop and maintain vehicles for all U.S. Armed Forces, many federal agencies, and more than 60 foreign countries.
The organization drives state-of-the-art in-ground vehicle robotics and autonomy, survivability, power and mobility, intelligent systems, maneuver support, and sustainment. GVSC researches develops, engineers and integrates advanced technology into ground systems and support equipment, from smaller, lighter, more mobile platforms to the largest of the Army’s ground vehicles, while developing enhanced lightweight armor for better ballistics protection, enhanced fuels and lubricants, and water supply and wastewater treatment capabilities.
Much of what has been accomplished by the GVSC has been done through corporate partnerships with various businesses in Macomb County and other areas of Southeast Michigan, that have the technology to help the Army in its pursuit of an EV fleet: Once such agreement with General Motors recently resulted in the development of the fuel-celled Chevrolet Colorado ZH2.
The GVSC also has an ongoing relationship with the University of Michigan’s Automotive Research Center, which helps the military with earlier phases of technological research.
“It’s our flagship academic partner,” Cadieux said. “We see our academic and industry investments as significant.”
