The U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense, Kathleen Hicks, paid a visit to the GM Technical Center in Michigan this week to observe how the company plans to help the Department of Defense (DoD) implement new electric, autonomous and connected technologies.
DuMont and Hicks
Secretary Hicks and her team visited the GM Design center and also toured the automaker’s Estes Engineering Center, which is the largest battery validation lab in North America. GM Defense also demonstrated its nine-Soldier, all-terrain Infantry Squad Vehicle (ISV) and an accompanying ISV variant for the Secretary, who later got behind the wheel of the ISV and experienced it for herself firsthand.
GM Defense president Steve duMont said Hicks’ visit allowed the company to show her how the government could leverage GM’s large-scale $35 billion investment in electric and autonomous vehicles to further its military might.
“GM Defense has a tremendous opportunity to leverage our parent company’s investments in advanced battery technologies and adapt them to meet defense requirements,” said duMont. “The more we can adapt existing commercial technology, the faster we can modernize warfighter capabilities and quickly deliver technology at the speed of relevance.”
“I appreciate Secretary Hicks taking the time to get to know GM Defense as we look to partner with Department of Defense on its electric future,” he added. “As the leader executing the DoD’s priorities, her leadership in the pathway to electrification is inspiring.”
A new variant of the GM ISV debuted at the recent Association of the United States Army (AUSA) meeting, which is fitted with a top-mounted .50 caliber gun and was a self-funded project to showcase one of the various applications GM Defense can create on the ISV Family.
In addition, GM Defense has also developed a one-off, self-funded battery-electric version of the ISV, which makes use of the same 200-horsepower powertrain as the Chevy Bolt EV and Bolt EUV via the E-Crate powertrain that debuted at the SEMA Show in 2019.
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Comments
… USA people loves Wars & Guns a lot, unfortunate,,,
As communists continue to push there will on other parts of the world, you can hide behind your kind words.
Go invade another country illegally again and lie about why you are doing it.
Word has it they are still looking for those weapons of mass destruction.
You mean the Communists that have infiltrated the ranks of US Gub’t and continue to push their will on hapless Americans?
The Internet was invented and funded by the US Military, so I suggest you get off and never use it again.
I thought the dept. of defense was renamed the dept. of woke?
If we’re engaged in a war or conflict in a place like Afghanistan again, I understand that we can fly in fuel but how do we provide electricity to EVs in a desert? Do we build a windmill farm before the fighting starts? Not trying to be flippant but seriously, how is an electric armored vehicle going to work in a battle in remote parts of the world?
Phase 1: You fly the Jet-A/JP8 in and burn it in a diesel generator like you do today. Bases need electric power anyway for little things like radars, computers, medical equipment, air conditioning…
Phase 2: You fly the Jet-A in, reform it to hydrogen and convert it to electricity in a fuel cell. This is where the huge efficiency gains come from because the fuel cell step can be 80%+ efficient. You can already do this for your business building today, see Bloom Energy.
Phase 1 you lie to the citizens about why you are going to war.
Phase 2 you get approval for the war and get a bunch of young men to join to send them to there deaths.
Phase 3 make more lies up to invade the neighboring country.
Phase 4 invade the neighboring country kill the leader then blame the intelligence community for bad intel.
Phase 5 stay in these countries for 20 years to steal there natural resources.
Phase 6 make a terror group to justify us staying here for 20 years.
Phase 7 destroy hundreds of thousands of buildings and homes displacing millions
Phase 8 make our “Allie’s” take all the refugees that our bombs displaced.
Phase 9 claim we got the man we came here for finally because citizens are starting to question why we are here.
Phase 10 pull out the war finally but not before one final gift. Use a drone to bomb and kill civilians and lie and say they were terrorists, but videos said otherwise so come out and admit you were wrong again.
Does any of this sound familiar to you sam?
Sam,
In scenario one, if we’re burning diesel fuel in a generator to create power for electrified vehicles, why not just burn diesel fuel directly in the Humvees as we do today? I don’t see the point of making the switch. If we can implement scenario two then it starts to provide a benefit.
A number of reasons:
1. Electric is much quieter and has less heat emissions, which aids in stealth, particularly when you’re not moving.
2. The vast majority of vehicle-miles used in the military are not in the battlefield but for training and logistics. You save there when you charge off utility power. This is particularly bad if your equipment is only certified for JP-8/JET-A (mechanical diesels) and you have to make special arrangements to get it delivered. Lifecycle costs matter.
3. ICE engines require more maintenance. Like the logistic expenses of flying in fuel, you also have to fly in air filters, engine oil, transmission fluid, etc. and a trained soldier to service them for every single piece of equipment you have. You also have to run ICE engines while in storage, for electric, pull the battery pack and the thing should be able so sit for a long time.
4. Off-road driving results in highly transient torque demands coupled with long idle times which kills fuel economy, particularly for a turbocharged diesel. This is seen in ATVs and side-by-sides which despite going maybe 15 MPH average with 20 HP engines, get around 10-12 MPG off-road.
5. Like the invention of the Internet, the government knows taxpayer dollars needs to support American innovation, and DoD dollars are a very good way. Otherwise, China is going to develop this technology and people will be crying that the US is behind and stuck buying from foreigners.
Where is the electricity coming from for all these electric vehicles (civilian & military)?
We already have brown outs & black outs.
Don’t see how the grid will handle the additional demand.
These are good questions, does the advantage come from the quiet electric drive, or the increased instant torque ?
Supplying electricity or hydrogen is not as easy as straight up liquid fuel like diesel. But spare cells swapped in would work. And electric range should be equivalent to a tank of diesel. Just my 2 cents. And any vehicles left behind might be more difficult to be repurposed. But that is far fetched.
Load them up with a bunch of technology so China can disable and freeze them in their tracks without firing a single missile. Aye aye, Sir!
Apparently, it’s okay now to stand 6 feet apart without a mask for photo ops, but they sure come in handy keeping the bugs out of your mouth while careening around in gm’s military-grade e-Wokemobiles!