“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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