Navy Develops Lightweight Power for Explosive Disposal Teams

(Army.mil)

The U.S. Office of Naval Research has developed a lightweight power system to cut the 50 pounds of battery devices hauled by the Navy’s explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) teams. Protonex Technology Corp. in Southborough, Massachusetts partnered with the Navy to build the system, called the Power Management Kit (PMK), and shipped five units to the team for a trial.

The kit is a portable system containing common military rechargeable batteries, a solar-powered blanket, a 1-pound Soldier Power Manager  unit and “smart” cables to link the Manager unit with EOD equipment. The Manager unit serves as the core of the kit, which can harness energy from a variety of sources to charge batteries and provide power to attached gear. When new equipment is added by the EOD team, it can be supported by providing a new cable.

In the Manager unit, a graphical interface displays information about batteries and sources, power usage, state of charge and operational details. These data are stored and retrieved on demand to help plan future missions.

The PMK, which weighs about nine pounds, replaces up to 50 pounds of specialized chargers and related equipment. Today, few of the Navy EOD teams’ primary tools and equipment use the same power sources, which requires team members to carry multiple single-purpose batteries to power their gear. With the PMK, explosive disposal teams can use alternative energy sources, such as a solar cell-covered blankets and fuel cells, which reduces the teams’ logistics footprints.

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