The Defense Department’s Office of Industrial Base Policy is working closely with the Defense Innovation Unit to tap into the commercial market to carry out the U.S. military’s battery strategy.
The goal is to standardize and aggregate battery demand to source rechargeable battery cells from domestic manufacturers, demonstrate cells in high-capacity rechargeable battery packs in different use cases and install new standardized rechargeable batteries into respective devices, the DOD reported Monday.
“We must send a consistent and coherent demand signal to industry – and by coordinating our efforts, we are ensuring that the batteries our forces use are available, ready and free of adversarial influence,” said Halimah Najieb-Locke, deputy assistant secretary of defense for industrial base resilience.
DIU has launched the Jumpstart for Advanced Battery Standardization program aimed at developing a standardized battery system using commercial technologies to power existing and future military ground vehicles.
Moreover, DIU has started soliciting high-capacity rechargeable battery cells or packs for military applications under the Family of Advanced Standard Batteries program.
