Energy Storage for Military Applications Faces Demands for More Power

Published in Military & Aerospace Electronics

NASHUA, N.H. - Mobile electronics for the battlefield go hand-in-hand with batteries, and have done so for years. It’s not news that electronics that can’t be plugged-in relies on the energy-storage medium of batteries. What’s new, however, is the growing reliance on batteries and other kinds of energy-storage media for sophisticated electronics that, despite their mobility, demand ever-growing amounts of power.

“The military is primarily concerned with off-grid operations,” explains Dominic Perez, chief technology officer at the Curtiss-Wright Corp. Defense Solutions Division in Ashburn, Va. Curtiss-Wright engineers view energy-storage design issues from the standpoint of a systems integrator.

“The military needs the power to sustain that mission,” Perez continues. “I am sure there are military folks who are looking, for example, at fully electric military vehicles and unmanned vehicles.”

The biggest energy-storage concerns of manufacturers and systems integrators revolves around power-storage issues like electrical capacity and discharge rate. Still, other concerns are nearly as important, such as industry standards and certification, safety, a reliable supply chain, battery form factors, battery technologies, and even alternatives to batteries like capacitors, generators, and solar power generation.

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