Army and Marines testing eight-wheel heavy weight hybrid
Click on above image to see high resolution shots of the HEMTT A3.
Oshkosh, who we reported was using die-cast copper rotors in is latest ProPulse series hybrid drive system last month, has developed, tested and fielded prototypes of the Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck (HEMTT A3). The army will be testing several HEMTT A3s over 10,000 miles / 16,093 kms at their Aberdeen Proving Grounds over the next few months. Testers will be throwing everything at the hybrid heavy weights in a bid to prove them ready for combat duty.
The eight-wheel, 13-ton HEMTT A3 uses 20 percent less fuel than the current diesel-only model, and brings 100 kilowatts of portable power along for the ride. This allows fast expeditionary units to bring power with them instead of having to tow an awkward generator to run a command-and-control centre or field hospital. The on-board diesel engine runs a generator, instead of driving the wheels; it is the generator which produces the power to drive eight wheel-mounted electric motors, or provide electricity to mobile operations when the truck is in parking gear. Electricity is stored in an ultracapacitor which operates well in freezing and extremely hot conditions despite weighing more than typical batteries.
Another advantage to using wheel-mounted electric motors is that the lack of a drive-train allows the cargo bed to be lower.
Oshkosh was awarded a $55 million research contract in 2003 to develop the HEMTT A3 by the U.S. Army Tank-automotive and Armaments Command (TACOM) Lifecycle Management Command.
Analysis: the military is seeing great promise in hybrid technology to reduce fuel consumption which lessens the logistics burden, and provide more flexibility via highly mobile on-board electric generators. I can see variations on this technology flowing down to commercial vehicles very quickly as the benefits are clear.
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[Source: Defense News]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
1985 Gripen 12:59PM (1/22/2007)
Wait, are you saying that I (and all other U.S. taxpayers) paid $55M to a private corporation to "research" development of this behemoth? It only gets 20% better fuel economy than the diesel variant?
So when (if ever) that technology trickles down to the civilian marketplace we can look forward to a subsidy paid by Oshkosh to help pay for that car since we funded the technology in the first place?
So $55M later we get a big truck that gets 12 mpg instead of 10 mpg (I'm guessing on these numbers as I can't find mileage specs on either the hybrid or standard diesel model)? Can't we do better than that? How about we just run a diesel model on biodiesel instead and use that $55M to fund a biodiesel manufacturing plant in Iraq!!!
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Stedwoo 2:58PM (1/22/2007)
Patience Grasshopper
First of all the vehicle does not run on gasoline or just Diesel. All field military vehicles (including helicopters) are required to run on Diesel, DF-2, JP-4, JP-8, VV-F-800. This allows the military to use locally sourced fuel and carry only one type of fuel into the field. This decreases the logistics required and what ever fuel you can find you can run.
As to the spending of 55 million dollars: That is a drop in the bucket. The US Army is spending 1.1 Billion on the HEMTT Recap program to rebuild the worn out vehicles (this was before OIF started) because of the equipment was wearing out faster than expected. This Hybrid program is part of that and since the HEMTT has a cruising range of 300 miles a 20 percent increase is huge. Also it is used as a fuel carrier so you are using less fuel to carry the fuel to other vehicles.
Lastly considering the Cost of a military spec generator to be used for a Command Center or Field Hospital; the converting of these vehicles allowing the removal of generators and HUMVEE to tow those generators (now the HEMTT that carries the hospital is the generator) will save much more money than 55 million just in purchase of equipment and ongoing maintenance cost.
Stedwoo
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