This is an electric military vehicle, the only one the Australian Army has in its fleet. It really seems like it was a ‘fuck around and find out’ sort of play from the Army – why not try and see if changing its tanks to electric would work. 10 points for innovative thinking, I guess.
The vehicle itself is armoured, of which the Army has ripped out the diesel engine and put an electric one in its place. A retro-fitted tank that otherwise has what its diesel-eating sibling have – ie, it’s designed to keep soldiers safe.
A few news articles from August 2022 are calling this thing the ‘Bushmaster’, but at SXSW Sydney, there was no branding to suggest that’s what it’s still called. But on the Army Research Centre website, it’s clear to see this is a considered project, despite the above labelling as ‘fuck around and find out’, one that looks to technology such as this to improve supply chain performance, provide greater energy autonomy, and increase Army’s capability performance across multiple domains. Regardless, there are a few batteries in this thing. Enough to apparently power a house for five days. But while that’s a lot of batteries, the vehicle can only travel 300 kilometres before needing another charge. You could always set the tank up at a Tesla type 2 charger, if you want.
While the Army ripped out the fuel tank to make it electric, it doesn’t exactly seem practical to limit vehicles that are in the field to only 300kms, but it seems the plan was really “let’s just give it a go and try to limit our footprint where we can”. There’s no denying the materials that went into making the tank are far from sourced in an environmentally friendly manner, so this thing wouldn’t be close to carbon neutral. That’s not the play here, the play is innovation.
While we mentioned it could power a house for a few days, it could also power a field hospital or mobile humanitarian centre. This tank would not be out doing combat things.
The electric military vehicle is a four-wheel drive and each wheel can be inflated or deflated depending on the terrain. It weighs a cool 12 tonnes.
Oh, and in case it wasn’t obvious, it’s bloody huge. Imagine sticking two Hummer EVs together and then covering them in armour and camo.
Well done on being environment-conscious, I guess.
This article has been updated since it was first published with a link to the Army’s Research Centre.
Image: Asha Barbaschow/Gizmodo Australia