PRIME POWER AND PULSED ENERGY-STORAGE FOR EM GUN EQUIPPED TANK COMBATMISSIONS

Although the development of technologies associated with electric weap ons and other high power loads has proceeded for over a decade, the im pact of their integration has largely focused on assumptions that suff icient prime power or energy storage would be included in the vehicle to allow the weapon and vehicle propulsion systems to operate complete ly independently, These assumptions have historically been appropriate for conventional weapon systems, and have resulted in a traditional i solation of weapon system and mobility system performance requirements . The advent of electric drive, electric weapons, and associated power bus technologies has provided a motivation for reexamining the genera tion and distribution of power and energy in the combat vehicle, The r esult of this paradigm shift has been the concept of an all-electric c ombat vehicle with electrical power generated at one or more central p oints and distributed in a shared manner to all of the vehicle loads, This power sharing would allow each subsystem to be capable of very hi gh performance without the burden of having its own complete power sys tem. Energy stored in the weapon system, for instance, could be used t o augment the mobility performance, Likewise, regenerative braking fro m the wheels or track could provide energy to the weapon system, Quant ifying these benefits in power system performance, however requires a rather detailed look at the duty cycles expected for these systems in their actual battle environment, This paper describes initial simulati ons carried out for a sample all-electric combat vehicle based on a ge neric tank-like mission profile. Variations in prime power and pulsed energy store capacity are examined under stationary and dynamic move-a nd-shoot conditions over a simple 30 minute mission profile, and a mor e complex 50 minute engagement. Results show that by sharing power bet ween the mobility and weapons systems, the prime power required can be reduced significantly from that required by the old method of summing up the worst case loads, Further discussion for continued reduction o f the power system required is also included.