Republicans try to stop military’s electrification with mind-bogglingly dumb proposals

teft, 10 months ago

Representative Gosar commented on his initiative:

<pre style="background-color:#ffffff;">
<span style="color:#323232;">>The military is no place to experiment with untested technology. 
</span>

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.

DarkGamer, 10 months ago

That Gosar guy is a dipshit.

As signified by the (R)

j4yc33, 10 months ago

um... DARPA?

Flaky_Fish69, 10 months ago

We all know DARPA is a front for all the alien tech that they’re reverse engineered.

Like Velcro and Mylar and the charcoallerizing ray gun

captainlezbian, 10 months ago

DARPA is laughing way too hard

wagesj45, 10 months ago

These are unserious people and it is shameful that we (collectively) have elected them to positions of power. If you've ever wanted to run for office but doubt your own abilities, just take a gander at these nimrods.

Jaysyn, 10 months ago

The proposals sound so mind-bogglingly dumb that they look like they were written by 19th-century Luddites or the fossil fuel industry itself.

Add in some guns & christofascism & that's basically the GOP in a nutshell.

NotMyOldRedditName, 10 months ago

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.

DarkGamer, 10 months ago

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.

Madison420, 10 months ago

Fueling is also much less volatile and you can gain that electricity with cleaner means and cheaper fuels, ideally nuclear.

NotMyOldRedditName, 10 months ago

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

Madison420, 10 months ago

Battery, proprietary design means they can’t use your supplies easily.

TurtleJoe, 10 months ago

Keep in mind that these proposed amendments would effect every vehicle purchase the military makes, which includes (as the article mentions) domestic fleets of vehicles that the military maintains. This isn’t just about front line war machinery; they’re arguing that EV tech is too experimental to allow the Pentagon to buy EVs for staff cars, or for military bases to use.

NotMyOldRedditName, 10 months ago

🤦‍♂️

Fondots, 10 months ago

for military bases to use.

My dad used to work on a military base as a civilian in wastewater treatment plant. Part of his job, about once a day he’d hop in their little public works pickup truck and collect some water samples from a handful of places around the base, check on some gauges at a couple different sites, etc. If I had to guess he logged probably a max of 5 miles on a busy day (and that’s probably a very high estimate) All low speed, pretty sure speed limit around most of the base was like 25mph. He could practically have done his rounds in a power wheels Barbie jeep (and really the little Chevy S10 or whatever they had was probably overkill for their needs, something like a golf cart or kei truck would probably have been plenty)

And except for that maybe hour out of his day he would drive it around, that truck would pretty much just sit.

That would be such an ideal niche for an EV, it’s got like 23 hours to do nothing but charge. Hell, you could probably even charge it off a solar panel, doesn’t take a whole lot of juice to go 5 miles.

xuxebiko, 10 months ago

Cui bono if the US military is hamstrung? Answer that and you know who is sponsoring Republican actions.

DarkGamer, 10 months ago

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.

xuxebiko, 10 months ago

China benefits in a big way too. So does UAE with Mister Bone Saw fancying himself as the power centre of ME politics.

alternative_factor, 10 months ago

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.

wheeldawg, 10 months ago

Umm what? Ford already makes these.

alternative_factor, 10 months ago

They do? Well shit I feel dumb.

DarkGamer, 10 months ago

No need to feel dumb, be happy you're one of today's lucky 10,000! ;)

Flaky_Fish69, 10 months ago

There’s always a relevant XKCD, lol

Flaky_Fish69, 10 months ago

Yeah. They’re QC sucks. With all manner of defects like hoods flopping up on the highway, weather stripping literally just falling off, gaps in the interior. (And all sorts of other recalls.)

It doesn’t help that every thing is over engineered and prone to breaking in the first place.

Flaky_Fish69, 10 months ago

Teslas aren’t luxury. They’re just way over priced. They have worse fit and finish than my decade-old beater

alternative_factor, 10 months ago

I mean just in terms of price really, I've seen their Soviet build quality.

KevonLooney, 10 months ago

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.

Turkey_Titty_city, 10 months ago

a bullet in the right place also disables a diesel vehicle

elscallr, 10 months ago

Well they're pretty good at stopping bullets. That's not an argument against anything, it's just a logistical problem.

skulblaka, 10 months ago

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.

Alto, 10 months ago

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.

BraveSirZaphod, 10 months ago

I would imagine the military is considering all of these factors. If there is actually political pressure to electrify vehicles in contexts where it's truly not appropriate, that would be alarming, but I haven't heard of any evidence of that happening at all, so I wouldn't say it's a meaningful concern.

DarkGamer, 10 months ago

Going to start running into cooling issues there as well.

Reinforced steel then? It both conducts heat and works as armor. I'm confident a technological solution exists.

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.

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.

Not to mention lithium batteries getting blown up is significantly worse for the surrounding environment long term than a diesel vehicle.

I suspect a military that uses depleted uranium rounds and burns all its waste in massive fire pits doesn't prioritize pollution reduction.

Flaky_Fish69, 10 months ago

CFRis actually not the best for ballistic protection. Chances are they will go with a composite based off chobbam armor. (Which may or may not be CF-reinforced ceramics,)

rafoix, 10 months ago

Doesn’t the one bullet in the right place also kill pretty much every vehicle?

A lithium powered EV will definitely burn itself to ash.

Maybe this means that the US government can invest heavily in battery technology where the patents are publicly owned.

For example, graphene batteries wouldn’t have the explosive problems that lithium batteries have.

elscallr, 10 months ago

A bullet in the right place will kill a person. Better stop using them, too.

Flaky_Fish69, 10 months ago

All hail the robot overlords!