Jamie Bennet
The Defense Innovation Unit and other agencies under the Department of Defense have teamed up to drive the development of a standardized battery system using commercial technologies to power future ground vehicles and other military platforms.
DIU said Thursday the Jumpstart for Advanced Battery Standardization project involves the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the U.S. Army’s Combat Capabilities Development Command Ground Vehicle Systems Center and the Department of the Navy Operational Energy.
The defense subsidiary of General Motors was the first vendor to be awarded by DIU and OSD last month. GM Defense plans to use its Ultium commercial battery technology to design a prototype for tactical military vehicles.
Four other vendors could receive awards as the DOD works to adopt more commercially available EV technologies, the department’s innovation arm noted.
“Our strategy is to learn how large of a building block we can leverage, how to package the commercial technology into non-proprietary defense interfaces, and how to integrate batteries evolving at the speed of industry into defense platforms with static structures,” said Daphne Fuentevilla, deputy director of DON-OE.
