Article

September 2003

U.S. Services Studying Future Power Needs

by Geoff S. Fein

While the military pushes for cheaper, smaller, lighter batteries and energy sources that won’t slow soldiers down, suppliers, however, may find it difficult to meet those demands.

“Government, as a customer, is not the greatest customer in the whole world if you are on the other side of the table,” said Jim Gucinski, from the Naval Surface Warfare Center Crane Division.

He was speaking before industry representatives at the 2003 Tri-Service Power Expo.

“We are really tough customers. We want really high reliability, and we want it at low cost. ... And we want you to give it to us on time,” he said.

Marine Col. Mark Jones, program manager for mobile electric power, said his service is conducting a two-year study on its battery requirements, “based upon operational scenarios including hot and cold temperature and storage environments.”

The Marine Corps also is embarking on two additional studies examining how it provides power on the battlefield, and the viability of using rechargeable batteries, fuel cells, solar panels and hybrids, Jones said.

During Operation Iraqi Freedom, there were problems matching up units with the right equipment, Jones said. Even when the equipment arrived on time, it often did not have the right kind of power system, he said.

“We, in the Marine Corps, are taking a very active role in [looking] at the power spectrum—from small batteries to large generators,” said Mike Gallagher, program manager for expeditionary power systems at the U.S. Marine Corps Systems Command. Among the priorities are onboard vehicle power systems, power converters and power supply devices.

“It is one of the areas where we are doing serious investment in the science and technology arena,” he said. “So what we’ll be investigating and working on quite heavily within the next couple of years are futuristic or advanced power systems to help our troops in the field.”

The Department of Defense also released a request for proposals in August for “advanced medium mobile power sources,” Jones said. “It is the biggest Defense Department program for generators to date.”

Marines currently operate equipment that is more than 30 years old, Jones said. Almost two-thirds of today’s generators were designed in the 1970s and 1980s.

About 52,000 out of 87,000 generators are “just old,” he said. “[It’s] hard to maintain them. Two-thirds of the C4ISR (Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance) force is powered by 1980s generators.”

One thing the Marine Corps needs urgently is a power management program, Jones said.

“We don’t do power management well,” he said. “We could use a power management software.”

Maj. Mike Bissonnettee, logistics officer with the Marine Corps, said the service needs a power management technical manual. “They don’t teach alternative power,” he said in an interview.

“There are a lot of great tools, but we don’t understand them,” Bissonnettee added. “[We’re] lacking information on what’s available, ... on what’s coming down the road. My pet peeve is information.”

Other military personnel attending the Expo conveyed similar opinions.

One maintenance officer said the problem is lack of knowledge of what power systems are out there. Others expressed concern that there isn’t enough training and education on the different types of power systems.

For the Army, the biggest challenge is lightening the infantry soldier’s load, said Tom Nycz, from the Army Communications Electronics Command.

There are also safety concerns, Nycz said.

“Unfortunately, we try to stuff a lot more technology into a smaller package, so we have a safety issue that we are very conscious about,” he said.

John Kang, a senior at West Point studying mechanical engineering, is looking at the feasibility of portable solar and wind power systems.

“If you can’t carry it with you, you won’t take it with you. And you don’t want it breaking on you,” Kang said.

Fuel cells, for example, are seen by some suppliers potentially as a direct replacement for batteries and small portable diesel generators. Fuel cell technology is also moving away from hydrogen to methanol, because methanol is lighter-weight and safer to handle. Refilling fuel cells is also easier with methanol, industry representatives said.

New solar panels are lightweight, smaller and durable, Kang said.

“Photovoltaic has no sound, minimum maintenance, but it is unreliable because of the dependence on the sun,” he said.

Not everyone is sold on alternative power. Nycz believes that replacing batteries with fuel cells won’t happen anytime soon.

“My personal belief is that won’t happen ever,” he said. More likely, soldiers will use a “combination of disposable and rechargeable batteries.”

Nycz isn’t alone in his thinking.

“I haven’t found anything that gives us what we need,” said Capt. Ken Kelsay, logistics officer from the Second Marine Division.

Kelsay told National Defense that he liked fuel cells, but people are apprehensive about using hydrogen. Methanol fuel cells seem “intriguing, and are not as volatile,” as hydrogen, he added.

A Marine Corps communications maintenance officer said he could see the day when there will be an alternative to batteries, but current technologies are not quite yet there.

Because solar panels require sunlight, they have limited use, he said. Vehicle power is useful, but not widely accepted. And “wind power is not an option for infantry,” he added.

The Army’s goal is to have enough electricity stored in a vehicle so it can run on “silent watch,” for 24 hours to 72 hours and provide continuous power to operate equipment without draining batteries, Nycz said.

Meanwhile, the Coast Guard also is working to reduce its power usage without a power management policy, said Buddy Hartberger, from the Coast Guard research and development office. It’s something the Coast Guard might have to rethink, he said.

About 70 percent of the Coast Guard’s energy budget is mobile fuel and 30 percent is the shore facility requirement.

Reducing energy consumption is a priority in the Coast Guard’s Deepwater program, Hartberger said. The project is designed to replace the service’s aging ships and aircraft.

Power management becomes a “real challenge when you start dealing with large ships,” he said.

Since 1984, the Coast Guard has been adopting solar power to light buoys. Of the Guard’s 16,800 lighted aids, 16,405 are powered by sunlight. The goal is to make as few visits to buoys as possible, Hartberger said.

The Coast Guard is now in the process of converting lighthouses (but not the light) to solar power, he said.

Remote power is also a concern as the Coast Guard pursues Rescue 21—rebuilding its entire communications system in and around coastlines for distress response. The system requires lots of communications towers and relay systems, Hartberger said.

“We are trying very hard to set that system up so we do not have to rely on the power grid in case of a natural disaster or any disaster,” he said.

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