CDE enduring challenge: power

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25 June 2014

Overview

• Power and energy are constraining factors on military

operations

• Likely to continue

• MOD needs improved power and energy management

• Industry is funding relevant development

• MOD has fossil fuel use reduction targets to meet

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Enduring challenge areas

• Dismounted soldier applications

• Bases, platforms and the

‘defence enterprise’

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Dismounted Soldier

System (DSS) power issues

• Soldiers carry too much

• Batteries contribution significant

• Future capability could increase

power demand – more data = more power

• Need to reduce battery burden

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MOD requires a means of transferring

high volumes of time-synced data

while minimising power consumption

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What we want

• COTS / MOTS high data rate, low power

consumption, reliable network with no latency

issues

• 1GBaseT (1 Gb/s) Ethernet functionality with

lower power consumption

• OR solution to synchronisation and latency

issues with USB

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MOD requires a means of powering

dismounted soldier systems over

multiday missions without excessive

mass

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What we want

• Novel, reliable and practical to sustain the

dismounted soldier power needs

• Efficient and practical ways to move power (and

data) around torso and to weapon and helmet

• Better batteries

• Better than state of art energy harvesting

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What we don’t want

• Energy harvesting proposals that don’t

– improve state of the art

– compete with batteries over 2-3 day missions

– make reasonable assumptions for resource

• Battery or fuel cell proposals that don’t

– exceed COTS

– or utilise COTS systems in a novel way

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Expected bid technical information

• Show an awareness of state of the art and

how the proposal claims to improve on this:

– Novel improved technology

– Novel use of a COTS technology

– Estimated performance

• Evidence or logic for estimates if possible

– Clearly defined deliverables

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• Beyond the soldier, defence

activities both foreign and

domestic consume significant

quantities of energy

• Are we resilient?

Bases, platforms and ‘defence

enterprise’

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Why fossil fuel?

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• Well understood properties

• High energy density

• Relatively safe in an operational environment

• Single source of energy reduces logistical burden

Risks

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• Energy cost increases

• Cost instability

• Future availability of military fuel

grades

• Commercial markets adopting new

types of fuels

Reason for action –

operations

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• Better resilience has benefits:

– Reduced re-supply missions

• Reduces cost and exposure to

harm

– Increased autonomy of force

elements

– Fight longer, harder, better

– Improve area of influence

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Reason for action –

UK infrastructure

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• Better energy resilience of

MOD infrastructure has

benefits:

– Reduced energy cost

– Flexibility to meet demand

– Reduced CO2 emissions linked to

defence

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Open to ideas

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Efficiency

Behaviour

Planning

1. Improve equipment

efficiency through improved

design and technology

insertion

2. Improve operating behaviour

through training

3. Improve planning to consider

the energy demand of

different options

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