Automotive Newswire from BRG Townsend, Inc. reports that we could see hybrid vehicle technology develop by leaps and bounds in the next few years now that the US government wants them for the US Army. According to the National Defense Industrial Association, the Army is keeping a keen eye on hybrid technology and acknowledges that it may have a role to play in future combat vehicles.
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One would perhaps expect that a downsized military would require fewer vehicles to carry troops and supplies. But that’s not the way it is according to Maj. Gen. N. Ross Thompson III, head of Army Tank – Automotive and Armaments Command, who says that between 1987 and 2007 the Army’s heavy truck fleet will grow from 20,000 to 30,000 vehicles. The medium fleet, meanwhile, will shrink from 206,000 to 83,000 and light trucks will go from 174,000 down to 124,000. Annual funding for truck programs is about $1.2 billion. This account is expected to rise to $2 billion by 2007. Thompson wants the Army to find ways to confront the rising fuel and maintenance costs of this fleet. “One way to do that,” says Gen. Thompson, “is to have fewer but more capable trucks. In the long term the Army will be able to save billions of dollars in logistics-related costs by consolidating the number of truck types it uses currently and by adopting hybrid-electric vehicles.”
The Bush Administration and Congress agree with Gen. Thompson and last November Congress awarded $14 million for the Army’s National Automotive Center in Warren, MI, where a program called the 21st Century Truck is being developed by The Big Three and the U.S. Army. This program has the potential of speeding up the development of hybrid vehicle technology as well as reducing its eventual cost to the consumer.
Proponents of more fuel-efficient military vehicles note that it would cut down on the number of fuel trucks, planes, and ships that would be required to carry fuel, placing less equipment and personnel in harm’s way, making it easier and faster to move an army and contributing to its effectiveness as a fighting force.
The association warns that we’re not likely to see a hybrid military vehicle next year or even in five years, but the development work that is done on these vehicles could bring a practical commercial vehicle to market within that period of time.
