Overview of Army battery strategy

Abstract

Summary form only given. The Army Material Command (AMC) is responsible for the design, procurement, production and fielding of the advanced batteries utilized by today's Army. These batteries are pervasive throughout the military. They are used in applications that range from computer memory batteries to supplying power to the majority of the Army's portable tactical and strategic communications systems. In total, AMC manages over 200 different battery configurations and sells on average over $80M worth of batteries to the soldier per year. There are three major parameters influencing the design of these batteries. The first, and foremost, are the requirements of the user, high power, light weight, mission time and the ability to operate over a wide range of environmental conditions. The second is the design solution proposed by the end item developer. The third parameter is battery life cycle costs. The costs associated with using batteries in end items, from tanks to radios, is a large percentage of the field's operating and support budget. Reducing these costs has become a major concern within the Army. The Army's current strategy is to elevate the importance of batteries and the associated operating and support cost during the design of an end item. The user's operational requirements documents address battery standardization and life cycle costs. Due to the importance of the Army's battery related efforts, the commander of the Army Material Command established CECOM as the AMC Battery Focal Point with the mission to coordinate and administer the AMC battery program. >