Atlantic Council GLOBAL ENERGY CENTER
ISSUE BRIEF
Power Projection:
Accelerating the Electrification of US Military Ground Vehicles NOVEMBER 2022 REED BLAKEMORE AND TATE NURKIN
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Background and Summary
The discussion of electrification of military platforms in the United States has long been framed as one of many measures necessary to mitigate the effects of climate change and its deleterious security and defense impacts. This is a constructive objective, but the motivation for electrification of the US Army’s ground vehicle fleet should be viewed through a more expansive lens than addressing the challenges of environmental strain and extreme weather. Electrifying the army’s ground vehicle fleet over the next two-plus decades will be crucial to gaining and sustaining advantage in a future fight in which mobility, stealth, and endurance will be in even higher demand as will new ways of powering the growing number of sensors and systems on which military personnel will rely. In February 2022, the army laid out its plan to transition most of its nontactical and tactical vehicles to hybrid over the next ten to fifteen years and then, by 2050, to field purpose-built fully electric vehicles.1 This transition will begin with non-tactical vehicles (NTVs)—the trucks, cars, buses, vans, and other vehicles used on military installations and for non-operational transport. Much of this requirement can be addressed through the adoption of current or imminent commercially available vehicles. Transitioning the army’s tactical wheeled vehicle (TWV) fleet—these vehicles, which include ultralight, light, medium, and heavy vehicles used to transport troops, equipment, water, ammunition, and, to date, fuel, can also carry out reconnaissance and increase mobility of troops—poses a more complicated challenge. Still, there is a growing sense that development of commercial electrification technologies is progressing to the degree that army’s electrification objectives are “pretty darn achievable” and could even be accelerated.2 From June through September 2022, Atlantic Council experts representing the Global Energy Center and Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security conducted primary and secondary source research to better understand 1
US Army Public Affairs, “US Army Releases Its Climate Strategy,” US Army, February 8, 2022, https://www.army.mil/article/253754/us_army_releases_its_climate_strategy.
2
Andrew Eversden, “Army Electric Vehicle Goals ‘Pretty Darn Achievable,’ but Challenges Remain,” Breaking Defense, March 2, 2022, https://breakingdefense.com/2022/03/army-electric-vehiclegoals-pretty-darn-achievable-but-challenges-remain/.