Truck & Off-Highway Engineering - October 2022 - 32

SAE
Q&
T
A
Electrification is the future for defense vehicles
Despite infrastructure challenges, electrified and automated military vehicles will
save fuel and lives, said Allison's VP of Defense Programs at SAE COMVEC 2022.
by Ryan Gehm
he M1 Abrams main battle tank developed for the U.S.
Army in the late 1970s remains the best tank in the
world, according to Allison Transmission's VP of
Defense Programs, but it does have an Achilles' heel:
It needs 0.7 gallons (2.65 L) of fuel to travel a mile. " You don't
have to be an engineer to know that's a problem, " Dana J.H.
Pittard said to a ballroom full of engineers during the opening
keynote of the SAE COMVEC 2022
conference in Indianapolis.
Pittard is not an engineer, but his
remarkable real-world experiences
make him eminently qualified for his
role at Allison. Before entering the
commercial sector in 2015, he served
in the United States Army as a major
general and retired after 34 years of
active duty - with assignments that
included leading a tank company in
Desert Storm and serving as military
aide to the President of the United
States and carrying the nuclear " football. "
" My perspective really comes
from being a former soldier, " he said.
" I've seen firsthand what innovation
means to soldiers like me and so
many others. It helps to get the mission
done and save people's lives. "
Fuel efficiency, autonomous and
unmanned vehicles and electrification
in defense vehicles were the main
topics of Pittard's conference keynote.
To illustrate the importance of fuel
efficiency in a military setting, Pittard
recalled the beginning of Russia's invasion
of Ukraine, when news reports
showed Russian tanks and vehicle
convoys stalled north of Kyiv, stretching
dozens of miles, waiting on resupplies
- especially fuel. Ukrainian forces
took advantage and eventually repelled
that portion of the invasion.
" Fuel consumption is huge for the military, " Pittard stressed,
carry less fuel or to move further with the fuel that they have.
Higher fuel efficiency means fewer fuel trucks on the road. "
Automated and electrified
An area where the commercial sector is " much more mature "
in its development than in the defense market is autonomous
and unmanned vehicles. He noted that
unmanned drones, piloted remotely
both in the region and from thousands
of miles away, were key in supporting
the Iraqi security forces in defeating
ISIS between 2014 and 2018.
" The only autonomous or unmanned
ground vehicles we had were the ones
that cleared roadside bombs - and
they were effective, but technology
has improved so much since then, "
Pittard said. Experimentation with
leader-follower trucks has led to soldiers
being able to issue digital commands
for autonomous vehicles to
form into convoys, drive in formation
and retrieve loads.
" That's a start, " Pittard said.
Dana J.H. Pittard speaking at
SAE COMVEC 2022.
" The necessity of
leveraging commercial
innovation for defense
applications is extremely
important. "
" especially since the United States Department of Defense is
the largest single consumer of fossil fuel in the world. "
Improving performance and reducing logistical requirements
for the DOD's 170,000 commercial vehicles and 250,000 tactical
vehicles is now an emphasis of development, he said.
" Becoming more fuel-efficient allows deployed formations to
32 October 2022
" Where we want to eventually get to,
though, is when you see tanks or infantry
fighting vehicles moving on
the battlefield, you should have no
idea whether or not they're manned
or unmanned, " he asserted. But there
are challenges - the most significant
being autonomous off-highway driving
with no infrastructure such as
roads or buildings from which to orient.
" These complex tasks will require
powerful sensors, precise algorithms,
and artificial intelligence to make the
task that much more routine, preventing
operator cognitive overload.
That is the future, " Pittard said.
Electrification is another area in which defense lags the
commercial market. The U.S. Army has recognized the need
to change, Pittard said, and has established " reasonable time
horizons " for hybrid-electric and fully electric vehicles: 2027
for a light-duty commercial EV, 2035 for a hybrid-electric tactical
vehicle and 2050 for a tactical EV. " But the basic challenge
is still, can we field an all-electric tactical vehicle on an
TRUCK & OFF-HIGHWAY ENGINEERING
Truck & Off-Highway Engineering - October 2022

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