Toward Ground Vehicle Electrification in the U.S. Army: An Overview of Recent Activities

The U.S. Army has been pursuing efforts to achieve better fuel economy in its ground vehicles to reduce the overall fuel-related logistic burden as well as enable cost savings. In military applications, depending on the destination to which fuel needs to be carried and the way it is carried (i.e., by ground, air, ship, etc.), the cost per gallon of fuel can be in the range of US$1,000 in certain cases (Tiron, 2009). This is a large expense, and there is always the motivation to improve fuel economy in the military. Among various activities to achieve the goal of fuel economy improvement, vehicle electrification is considered to be an important one and includes the introduction of hybrid and electric vehicles in the military. In addition, the army also needs high-voltage (HV) high-power electrical devices for nonvehicular applications, including but not limited to certain types of arms that can be electrified. This article provides an overview of activities related to advanced power electronics and electric drives that have been pursued within the U.S. Army Research Development and Engineering Command-Tank Automotive Research Development and Engineering Center (RDECOM-TARDEC), Ground Vehicle Power and Mobility (GVPM) Department over the past several years. These include activities in the Hybrid Electric Reconfigurable Moveable Integration Test Bed (HERMIT) project, dc-dc converters, silicon carbide (SiC)-based power electronics, and integrated starter generators (ISGs), among others. The activities indicated here were performed through both in-house government efforts and joint efforts with various industrial partners and academia. It is believed that this article will provide the reader with an idea of U.S. Army efforts in electrification, thus helping to compare and contrast them against similar efforts in the commercial industry and highlight any unique aspects specific to the military.