At present, the electrification of ordinary civilian vehicles has become a trend, so will military vehicles be electrified?
High requirements for military vehicles.
Generally speaking, there are three key requirements for military vehicles. One isPassing sexIn order to be able to quickly pass through various terrain areas, military vehicles generally adopt a multi-wheel design, with several pairs of tires acting at the same time to strengthen their grip and other indicators. Under normal circumstances, military vehicles will also match four-wheel drive, six-wheel drive or even eight-wheel drive according to the number of wheel axles, and the driver needs to choose the driving mode according to the actual terrain needs.
Electric vehicles have become a megatrend.
Secondly, yesProtective。Due to the increasing use of vehicles in modern warfare, military vehicles will encounter various problems in the process of moving - this may be a stray bullet flying in, or the wheel has run over a mine, or even the object may be under the most vulnerable chassis of the vehicle.
Finally, yesReliability。The reliability of the vehicle is obviously quite important, and no one will buy a car that is lying on its stomach for three days and two ends, which can be understood by the soaked cars in the second-hand car market, etc. For the military, the reliability requirements for military vehicles are obviously more stringent. When something happens, it can only be a person who changes cars and does not change places. On the road, a series of problems faced must be solved in a short time.
If military vehicles are to be electrified, the first thing to consider must be this series of issues. For now, electric vehicles can simplify mechanical transmission and achieve full drive more conveniently, but the protection and reliability are quite poor.
Today's military vehicles are generally more defensive.
Motors and other equipment for electric vehicles need to be installed in or on wheels, and wires need to be connected to the motor all the way from the power supply. Traditional fuel-powered military vehicles can work on underbody chassis and wheel protection, and can even install a set of spare parts that can be used at any time to pursue reliability. And what about electric cars?
Obviously, electric vehicles are limited by the power structure, and it is difficult to meet the requirements of the military in terms of protection and reliability. If the motor is installed in the engine compartment according to the current common use of electric vehicles, and then the fuel tank is replaced with a battery, it is indeed possible to realize the electrification of military vehicles in a short time. But what about the range of electric vehicles?
As we all know, the load of military vehicles is large, if you want to pursue a relatively long range (500km), how big of a lithium battery is needed to match it? Although the quick-release battery can enable the vehicle to march again in a short time, if the car can achieve a range of 300km and has a quick-release design, what weight should the battery be controlled with? In which department should the battery be insured? What to do if the battery life keeps shortening?
What are the benefits of an electric military vehicle?
If we can't break through the many bottlenecks of today's electric vehicles, it will be difficult to achieve electrification in a short period of time. However, is it true that there is no benefit at all in the electric use of military vehicles? Apparently not.
The most obvious benefit is silence。Russia introduced the SM-1 electric military motorcycle back in 2018. It is reported that this military motorcycle is capable of achieving a range of 150km after completing a single charge. No matter what kind of environment you are in, the engine will not make too much noise, which is quite advantageous for special operations. According to the assumption, Russian soldiers and motorcycles can land at a distance of about 50km from the enemy by transporting *** and infiltrate by motorcycles.
The U.S. military's newest Silent Eagle hybrid motorcycle.
Although it is much faster to be able to drive and infiltrate on a motorcycle than to infiltrate on foot after landing, the Russian army does not eat this set. Today's military motorcycles and all-terrain assault vehicles can also achieve noise reduction through various noise reduction measures, and the noise emitted by the Kawasaki military motorcycle equipped by the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force when driving in an open and flat plain area is close to the background noise of nature from a distance of 50 meters.
Kawasaki military motorcycle.
The terrain area where electric vehicles have the greatest advantage over fuel vehicles is the plateau。The air on the plateau is thin, and whether it is a fuel vehicle that uses gasoline or diesel as the main power, its engine needs to suck in air to make the fuel and air mix well and then combuste, and then do the work. Then, such a structure leads to the fact that fuel vehicles are destined to be unable to fully do work on the plateau, that is, they cannot output the rated power.
Auto soldiers on the plateau.
Electric vehicles don't need to think about this at all. The electric motor does not need to continuously inhale air to do work, nor does it need to continue to overload like the fuel car engine, not only the fuel combustion is not sufficient, but the overload operation is also easy to lead to coolant boiling and the engine service life is shortened.
The electric motor of an electric vehicle only needs to take into account cooling issues, braking issues and sufficient power**. This shows what kind of performance electric vehicles will perform in plain areas, and what kind of performance will also be presented in highland areas.
Is there a compromise in the power structure of electric vehicles? The Germans had already used it in World War II.
Despite the above benefits, on the whole, pure electric military vehicles will not work, so is there a compromise?
The Silent Eagle motorcycle recently developed in the United States adopts a hybrid method, which means that it is equipped with a fuel engine, a generator, a battery, and an electric engine that can burn gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel. In this way, the Silent Eagle can achieve a noise level of 75 decibels in the case of fuel, compared to 55 decibels when switching to an electric engine.
Obviously, hybrid vehicles are currently the best embodiment of the compromise between fuel and electricity for military vehicles. As everyone knows, this method has been used by the German army as early as World War II. At that time, the German Tiger P tank had already adopted the method of driving the tank with a gasoline generator and an electric motor. Although the Tiger P tank disappeared after the Ferdinand tank destroyer, it was also a manifestation of the German army's "black technology" at that time.
Obviously, hybrid vehicles can be powered and driven by batteries after they are charged. When the power reserve in the battery is exhausted, the battery can also be charged by generating electricity from fuel oil, and it can also be driven by a fuel engine. Soldiers driving hybrid motorcycles have little to no need to worry about battery life, and according to the US military's Silent Eagle motorcycle, no matter what kind of fuel they find, they can fill it into the tank and drive away.
Tiger Pluton, which was eventually converted mostly into a Ferdinand tank destroyer.
However, hybrid vehicles also have drawbacks. In contrast, the power system of fuel vehicles generally requires the cooperation of the engine and fuel tank, and the electric vehicle also requires at least the cooperation of the electric motor and battery.
In addition to the fuel engine and fuel tank, hybrid vehicles require an electric motor and battery. This is undoubtedly an unwise choice for military vehicles that are at a premium for every inch of land, and it also needs to take care of reliability: so many sets of equipment need daily maintenance, and they also need combat readiness logistics. Just maintaining the subordinate vehicles of a combat detachment on the scale of a composite battalion can only mean that the logistics are under great pressure.
Brief summary. At present, fuel military vehicles are still the absolute main force. Military vehicles, whether electrified or hybrid, are unrealistic in the near future. There are occasional cases, but they can only be used as cases to take care of extreme uses, and cannot be generalized.
The current situation of military electric vehicles may be as confused as the people watching on the street after the invention of the first automobile: this car is not as fast as horses, how can it become people's mainstream means of transportation? It's just an inventor's toy. Little would they have imagined that just a few decades later, the streets would be filled with cars, and the car would now be one of the most well-known means of transportation.
In the future, human scientific and technological progress will promote electric vehicles to be comparable to fuel vehicles in all aspects, so there will be no need for fuel vehicles to exist. At that time, the electrification of military vehicles may really be put on the agenda.