New Army tech sips fuel, reduces generator run-time
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. – As the Army has been taking new technology to the field for on-the-fly feedback and upgrades, the sustainment community has been taking lessons and thinking about the kind of technology they’ll need to equip and fuel formations in the future.
It’s going to require a lot less diesel fuel, leaders said Wednesday at the AUSA Global Force Symposium here. The infantry squad vehicle, one of the stars of the Transformation in Contact effort, sips fuel compared to the Humvee, its “college-kid-on-Spring-Break” predecessor, according to the 25th Infantry Division’s sustainment brigade commander.
“To give you kind of a touch point in that, our Alpha Company only had to push into 2,700 gallons of gas through the entire duration of that formation, in that fight, because of a low consumption rate with the ISV,” said Col. Chris Johnson.
That was compared to 45,000 gallons burned by 1980s-era Humvees the year before, Johnson said.
“You're like, well, what's the big deal in having to push less gas?” he said. “Well, we look at our fight through a lens of fighting in the Pacific. We look at it through a lens of fighting, maybe, places like the Philippines, some other islands that, you know, we won't mention here.”
Lower fuel consumption means that many fewer fuel trucks, driven by soldiers, on the roads in congested cities or on highways with low bridges and overpasses, he said.