Army seeks new ways to power troops on the battlefield

UK Defence Innovation has opened a Tactical Power Challenge worth £2.45 million seeking better ways to generate, store, distribute and manage electrical power for deployed forces, run on behalf of the British Army with support from the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, according to UK Defence Innovation.

The competition is being delivered in partnership with Australia’s Advanced Strategic Capabilities Accelerator and closes at noon on 10 November. Further detail is available on the government’s competition page.

The organisation said the challenge seeks innovative solutions to improve the generation, storage, distribution and management of electrical power for deployed forces.

Power has become one of the quieter constraints on how the Army fights. A dismounted section now carries radios, electronic warfare detectors, night vision, counter-drone equipment, tablets and the batteries for all of it, and the weight of those batteries competes directly with water and ammunition. At formation level the problem scales up into generators, fuel convoys and the thermal and acoustic signature that a diesel generator park produces for anyone looking.

Ukraine has made the point sharply over the past four years, because units operating dispersed and under constant observation cannot run a visible generator, and the fuel resupply that a traditional headquarters depends on is one of the easiest things for a drone operator to find and hit. Silent generation, solar and battery hybrids, and power management that lets one source feed several systems have all moved from convenience to survivability.

The Australian partnership places the competition inside a wider pattern of British and Australian innovation work, with the Advanced Strategic Capabilities Accelerator performing a similar function to UK Defence Innovation. Running a challenge jointly gives a successful supplier two potential customers and gives both armies a chance of fielding compatible equipment, which matters more as the two countries work together under AUKUS Pillar Two on autonomy, artificial intelligence and electronic warfare.

UK Defence Innovation was established to replace the Defence and Security Accelerator and to put a single organisation in charge of pulling new technology into the department at pace, with a budget ringfenced under the Strategic Defence Review. Competitions of this kind are its main instrument, offering a defined sum against a defined problem on a short timetable.