Advanced High Energy and High Power Battery Designs and Materials for UAVs, UUVs and UMVs

Yardney Technical Product's (YTP) Lithion Division has developed advanced high power battery systems for numerous manned and unmanned systems. Specifically, for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), YTP has developed and delivered high energy designs for both the Global Hawk and the X-37. YTP has delivered high power batteries for electric torpedoes and high energy batteries for both the manned Advanced Seal Delivery System (ASDS) and unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs). Additionally, YTP is underway in the Qualification testing of our fourth Unmanned Martian Vehicle (UMV), the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL).

The performance and environmental requirements of these systems demonstrates the importance of battery thermal design and also some of the inherent limitations of the commercially available active materials. The above applications are largely military and aerospace, therefore a desire exists for the raw materials to come from conflict-secure sources. There are several major issues in meeting this goal and the government efforts funded to date have only addressed the very unique needs of satellites. The benign temperatures, low rates, low depth of discharge and lower maximum voltages are not compatible with typical military operation.

This paper reviews some of the physical and chemical designs for these existing applications and compares their performance to next generation materials presently being designed and tested through YTP's joint raw material development and qualifications efforts.