Republicans try to stop military’s electrification with mind-bogglingly dumb proposals
DarkGamer@kbin.social to 
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electrek.co
Several Republican representatives have proposed amendments to the National Defense Authorization Act to try to stop the Pentagon’s electrification. The proposals sound so mind-bogglingly dumb that they look like they were written by 19th-century Luddites or the fossil fuel industry itself.
With the US military operating a fleet of hundreds of thousands of vehicles, including tactical vehicles, it makes the Pentagon the largest institutional consumer of fossil fuels in the world.
The entire transportation industry is currently transitioning to electric propulsion, and the US military knows better than to be left behind.
I wonder how they prevent the batteries from burning when they are punctured? Diesel doesn't really burn, but one bullet in the right place can destroy an entire EV in minutes.
So surround the battery in half inch thick carbon fiber plating and call it a day. Military vehicles are usually less worried about weight limits than civilian vehicles and they're especially not worried about looking pretty. Armoring your vehicle isn't a new idea.
Going to start running into cooling issues there as well.
Look, I'm all for electrification in as many places as we can, but there are absolutely many military use cases where they currently aren't feasible. Not to mention lithium batteries getting blown up is significantly worse for the surrounding environment long term than a diesel vehicle.
Reinforced steel then? It both conducts heat and works as armor. I'm confident a technological solution exists.
Yes, and there are likely many circumstances where electric is preferable. With the right equipment this could allow military operations without supply chains delivering fuel. Batteries to be refilled by solar, or portable fission or fusion reactors, for example.
I suspect a military that uses depleted uranium rounds and burns all its waste in massive fire pits doesn't prioritize pollution reduction.
This is actually the best dystopian news I've read in awhile, whenever the military gets serious about a technology they usually throw money into it to make it cheaper and more efficient, which eventually ends up getting in the hands of us civilians. Teslas are still luxury vehicles, it'll be great if the military makes e-fords or some ungodly thing like that.
Teslas aren’t luxury. They’re just way over priced. They have worse fit and finish than my decade-old beater
Cui bono if the US military is hamstrung? Answer that and you know who is sponsoring Republican actions.
Putin on the ritz
Helsinki made that plainly obvious to anyone who was paying attention.
China benefits in a big way too. So does UAE with Mister Bone Saw fancying himself as the power centre of ME politics.
HAHAHAHAHA. Better tell that to the United States Army Test and Evaluation Command or the Army Futures Command or any of the other branches test and evaluation commands. That Gosar guy is a dipshit.
As signified by the (R)
Having some military vehicles mixed in the fleet that are electric would probably make things more robust.
What if the supply lines get cut off and they're stuck in a part of town in a defensive position.
They'll eventually run out of gas, but there may be electricity there, or they may have solar panels as part of their kit.
All gas has this problem, all EV has a different problem, but a mix could be more resilient.
Agreed. Also, electric vehicles are also much simpler mechanically speaking. They have fewer moving parts that can break relative to a modern gas engine. In-wheel electric motors wouldn't need a drive train, and would mean more room for other military stuff in vehicles.
Fueling is also much less volatile and you can gain that electricity with cleaner means and cheaper fuels, ideally nuclear.
If they had to do an emergency airlift supply drop, I wonder if they'd prefer dropping a massive battery vs a pile of gasoline. Although the battery would be more expensive I guess. Like airdrop a Tesla Megapack.
Also that'd be bad if a enemy overran them and then took that asset, so probably bad idea heh