15 comments

August 18, 2007

US Army Goes Green Unveils First Hybrid-Electric Propulsion System for New Combat Vehicles

by Dhiram Shah

The U.S. Army unveiled its first hybrid-electric propulsion system for a new fleet of Manned Ground Vehicles (MGVs). The Army is developing and building eight new MGV variants for 15 Future Combat Systems Brigade Combat Teams (FCS BCTs). All eight commonly-designed MGV variants will provide Soldiers with enhanced survivability, increased speed and mobility, new network-based capabilities, and more modern, modular technology. All the eight variants will have a common chassis saving the army a great deal of money. For the first time the Army will be integrating a functional hybrid-electric drive system into a combat vehicle. The drive system is part of the propulsion system that will power the vehicles.


The Army has long been at the forefront of developing hybrid-electric vehicles. In fact, the Army’s hybrid-electric vehicles are significantly more robust and more powerful than commercial hybrid vehicles. The first hybrid- electric MGV variant, the Non-Line-of-Sight Cannon (NLOS-C), will commence production in late 2008.
“The MGV drive train is unique,” said Colonel Bryan McVeigh, product manager for MGV systems integration. “The traditional engine has been de-coupled from the drive train architecture and is designed only to recharge the energy storage system and power the vehicular systems.
Via – US Army FCS

15 Comments

  1. danwat1234

    how many MPG?

  2. solaxyfox

    The drive train is not unique. That is how diesel trains have run for a while. Glad to see the army finally catching up to the railroads…

  4. Dr. Kenneth Noisewater

    Reduced noise signature, reduced logistics train, ability to power future energy weapons, it’s a win all round!

  5. overlord

    This sounds exactly like the SEP system Hagglunds made.

  6. John Pate

    It’s an old idea. One of the prototype for what became the Tiger 1 tank of WW2 was a hybrid vehicle driven by electric motors charged by a petrol engine driving a generator. See…
    http://www.worldwar2aces.com/tiger-tank/

  7. john phillips

    The rail roads did this in the 1940s.
    They are called diesel electric locomotives.

  8. Draq Wraith

    Wait until they add the new method of delivery for mortar rounds. Magnetically launched munitions should throw a monkey wrench into this plan.
    D~W

  9. joe

    What kind of battery pack?

  10. few

    Sounds just like the drive trains that have been used on some of the largest dump trucks in the world for years.

  11. Tim

    I’ve been wondering why the car companies are screwing around with over-complicated parallel hybrids when they could be doing this, which reduces SO much complexity in a vehicle, mainly the complete lack of a transmission. And it allows the engine to be a lot simpler since it only has to ever operate at its optimum RPM and the electric motors are very durable and last almost forever.

  12. jonathan givens

    Tim,
    its all about the $ in parts. ups has their vehicles made to their specs so they are easy to work on saving them$. And an overbearing gov’t constantly adding complexity to vehicles adds to cost.
    jonathan

  13. darn

    Chevy Volt…

  14. Bruce

    Why do they go to all this fuss while still suppressing fuel reforming technology they used in WW2 to get 5 times the fuel mileage and very little pollution becuase they changed gasoline into natural gas and meathanol. see http://www.himacresearch.com ,www.byronwine.com http://www.fuelvapors.com. It is time to end suppression before it ends us all

  15. Robert Garn

    For front line, in a combat area, the cost of delivering each gallon of gas to a vehicle is about $100! That is likely why the Army is so interested in this technology and its development.

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