MILITARY
(WEleAcRtr Hic)ORSE The vehicle used supercapacitors to
Hybrid vehicle technology that could o er multiple technical and
operational enhancements to military vehicles, while reducing reliance on
fossil fuel, is being tested by the Army
Experimental hybrid prototypes
By Peter Shakespeare
electri cation has been undertaken by
Magtec. Julian Bryan, head of military test
and development at UTAC says: “Through
testing a cross section of hybrid military
vehicles, TD6 aims to provide evidence
to support previous studies, but also to
address user perceptions, both positive
and negative. Our test programme is
centred on those perceived bene ts and
disbene ts and will also benchmark how
easy it may be to apply existing, available
commercial technologies to the military
environment.”
NOT NEW
The concept of using hybrid drivelines in
military vehicles is not new. US military
vehicle manufacture Oshkosh developed
a prototype series hybrid 8x8 HEMTT
A3 all-terrain load carrying vehicle as far
back as the mid-2000s. Driven by traction
motors on each axle, it used a 7-litre
CAT in-line six diesel engine running at a
constant 1,500rpm to drive a generator.
store short-term power used for rapid
discharge bursts for acceleration and
in high power demand situations o
road. Regenerative braking was used to
recharge the capacitors. The conventional
version of this vehicle used a CAT C15
engine producing 500hp. In trials, Oshkosh
plugged the hybrid vehicle into an airport.
It produced enough power (120kW) to
run the air eld lights. Oshkosh claimed
fuel savings over the CAT C15-powered
version of up to 35%.
The British Army says that its next
generation of vehicles could also be
capable of providing emergency power.
It claims that one hybrid MAN SV vehicle
is capable of producing over 500kW of
power, and could replace nine generators.
Two and a half hybrid MAN SV vehicles
could power an army eld hospital or
provide emergency power.
Currently, when deployed in the eld,
large formation headquarters (battle
group, brigade or division) are totally
reliant on generators to provide power for
light, communications and IT systems.
They move on vehicles towing these
generators, resulting in high levels of
diesel consumption. The use of hybrid
vehicles would eliminate the need for
separate generators and, combined with
the more fuel-e cient hybrid driveline,
would signi cantly reduce the logistics
burden, in terms of fuel supply.
Lieutenant Colonel Ed Sutthery, a sta
o cer working in innovation, research
and experimentation at the MoD says:
“We are conducting an experiment to
inform modernisation of the Army using
the commercial technology currently
available. With the demise of the internal
combustion engine, we have little choice
but to embrace new technologies or we
simply won’t have a capability to deploy.”
of the Army’s Foxhound
protected patrol vehicle
(pictured at right), Jackal
reconnaissance vehicle (below)
and MAN SV logistics vehicle (right inset)
are being tested at the UTAC, previously
Millbrook, proving ground.
The £9 million programme is being
led by Defence, Equipment and Support
on behalf of the Ministry of Defence
(MoD) and is known as Technology
Demonstrator 6 (TD6). It commenced in
January 2020 and is driven, in part, by the
Army’s stated desire to be less reliant on
fossil fuels.
The trial is being managed by UTAC
on behalf of the MoD, with support from:
Jacobs Engineering Group, commercial
vehicle hybrid drive system manufacturer
Magtec, Rheinmetall BAE Systems Land
on behalf of Rheinmetall MAN Military
Vehicles; with Magtec, Supacat and
General Dynamics UK working behalf
of NP Aerospace. UTAC says all the
82
www.operationsengineer.org.uk Winter 2021
Image: Crown copyright
/www.operationsengineer.org.uk