Help
Battery-powered soldiers
February 27th, 2009 | AUSA Winter 2009 | Posted by Michelle Tan
Every soldier knows and loves his gear. What Joe might not be so fond of are the batteries he has to carry to fuel this gear.
Well, BAE Systems is working on its Integrated Warfighter System, a multi-piece system that includes powered E-SAPI plates capable of powering just about any piece of gear a soldier might carry.
The plates, worn on the front and back like regular E-SAPI plates, are a power and data distribution center, said BAE’s Mike McElroy. And the redesigned vest holds a computer in the back, just below the plate carrier.
Each plate is integrated with a lithium-ion battery that uses thin film technology and is less than three-eighths of an inch thick, McElroy said. The battery is split into four packs across the plate, so if one quadrant of the E-SAPI gets hit, the other three packs continue to provide power, he said.
The battery provides a “unique power supply for the warrior,” said Val Horvatich, director of engineering at BAE, and has enough power for all basic soldier equipment (radios, flashlights, navigation systems, night-vision devices, etc.) for a 72-hour mission. The idea is to give already overloaded soldiers a 10 percent reduction in weight.
“The majority of the equipment right now is powered by standard batteries,” he said. “We want to be able to offer a system that keeps things charged so instead of having to carry 10 batteries for a mission, they only have to carry two.”
The folks at BAE have perfected the battery-powered plates. Now they must figure out how to to channel that power in an efficient way to the user, Horvatich said.
One idea in the works includes what he called E-MOLLE, where the webbing on a vest’s MOLLE contains power and data ports, so all soldiers have to do to recharge their flashlight is to hook it to their vests. Horvatich said the company hopes to have E-MOLLE done by the end of the year.
Another element to the IWS is the modular helmet system.
The IWS helmet begins as a carbon fiber chassis. Soldiers then build the helmet based on what they need for the mission using interlocking pieces that can implement capabilities such as a GPS antenna and night-vision, Horvatich said.
The helmet on display at AUSA, weighing 4 1/2 pounds and modeled by BAE’s Mark Jackson, had a heads up display, a tactical light and thermal imaging device, map-reading waterfall lights and GPS capability.
“We’re trying to develop a concept that allows the warrior to select the right protection for his head,” while still maintaining the ballistics protection provided by a helmet, he said. “It’s got to be a helmet first.”
As cool as all this gear sounds, Horvatich said BAE is about 80 percent into Phase Zero of the three-phase project. However, the powered E-SAPI plates will be available in October, McElroy said.
“We truly believe this is the direction that soldier equipment needs should go,” Horvatich said.
Tags: BAE Systems, E-SAPI, helmet, Integrated Warfighter System