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Power Management and Distribution for Electric Heavy Armored Vehicles and Tanks
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English
Abstract
Over the last fifty years the Army’s Heavy Armored Vehicles/Tanks have become more complex. The need to survive on the battlefield against an enemy who may outnumber you has forced the Armored Systems to be smarter and faster to deliver the first lethal blow. Our tank systems today are able to seek out the enemy and destroy him before he finds you. This has been accomplished by the addition of many electrical/electronic target seeking/tracking, turret/gun control, countermeasure/detectors/sensors, and Combat Vehicle Command and Control (CVC2) equipment to our vehicles. This equipment and its associated wiring has added increased power distribution demands and added weight to the vehicles.
In order to cope with this situation, the U.S. Army Tank- Automotive Command (TACOM) has taken on the initiative of formulating a Standard Army VETRONICS Architecture (SAVA) for combat vehicles. This architecture would provide as needed high-speed/utility databuses, common computer resources and common power supply systems along with a 270VDC high power demand capability. The computerized power management system allows for sharing of assets through multiplex bus to reduce the amount of cabling within the vehicle. This power management system provides a computer controlled allocation of electric power throughout the vehicle. Commonality of modules will allow for the use of this equipment from the simplest of trucks to the most complex Armored hting Vehicle. The final version of specification MIL-STD-344 is in the process of being released.
In summary, SAVA is an open ended architecture, consisting of a modular building block structure of a family of buses and processors. The requirements conform to form, fit, function and interface modular hardware packaging. By implementing a bus controlled power system, point to point electrical wiring is reduced. The system will provide fault tolerant operation via redundant media with automatic reconfiguration. The system will facilitate Power and Data Distribution and Control.