On the Battlefield: Making Batteries Smaller

The Army Research Lab in Maryland looks at innovative ways to make the US Military the best equipped fighting force in the world. Looking at everything from better blast resistant armored vehicles to...
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Adaptation, Efficiency, Energy, Government & Military, Solar

The Army Research Lab in Maryland looks at innovative ways to make the US Military the best equipped fighting force in the world. Looking at everything from better blast resistant armored vehicles to new materials for helmets to protect against head injuries. If there is a problem in the field, the top military brass turns to the ARL for solutions.

What are they researching right now? Better batteries. Today’s soldier has a plethora of electronics when going into battle. Night vision goggles, communication devices, electronic scopes for their riffles, GPS, etc. And all those electronics take batteries, and some sort of generator to charge those batteries. In all, today’s soldier carries more than 16 pounds of batteries on their person. The lab is looking at ways to make the batteries smaller and hold a charge longer, thus reducing the amount of batteries taken into battle, which allows them to carry more bullets or water into battle instead.

They are also looking at new non-fossil fuel ways to charge those batteries, developing solar, wind and hydrogen fuel cells to reduce the need for diesel fuel.

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