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Field units throughout the Army can achieve significant savings by using rechargeable batteries whenever possible during training and real-world deployments.
Batteries are a critical element of many portable military systems, such as communications sets, night-vision devices, and sensors for training and combat. Without power, these systems simply are not viable. For this reason, managing the Army's battery program is significant, challenging, and rewarding.
During the 1970s and 1980s, there were over 350 different types of batteries (1.5 to 30 volts) in use by the Army and Marine Corps. The proliferation of battery types, shapes, and sizes, coupled with increasing demands for portable power, led to historically high annual battery expenditures of $100 million or more, decreased unit readiness and interoperability, and reduced the industrial base.
A few years ago, the Chief of Staff of the Army, General Dennis J. Reimer, challenged the Army to provide vehicle batteries that would last 5 years or longer and to reduce Army battery sales by 50 percent. The Army Communications-Electronics Command (CECOM) responded in two important ways.
Battery Initiatives
First, the Power Sources Center of Excellence (PSCOE) was established to bring together developers of all the technologies in the power sources arena and other defense services and agencies and the actual users of those technologies. The main objective of the PSCOE is to ensure that the Army gets the most power-efficient solutions with the least weight and at the least cost to meet the power requirements of today and the everincreasing demands of the digital battlefield of the future.
Second, CECOM convinced the Chief of Staff that, by introducing a new family of communicationselectronics rechargeable batteries and a smart, inexpensive charger, battery costs during training could be cut by as much as 60 percent over a 3-year period for an average battalion. This decision was not an easy one for the Chief of Staff of the Army or the logistics community because the use of rechargeable batteries instead of primary, disposable batteries is a very cost and culturally sensitive issue. The policy of "train as you fight" presents a marketing challenge to "sell" the benefits of using rechargeable batteries to leaders, field commanders, and the units actually using a myriad of portable equipment.
The decision to use...