BAE Systems has announced a £3.5m commitment to develop greener and safer rechargeable electric propulsion systems. The investment will fund the development of a new test and integration laboratory at the company’s Broad Oak site in Portsmouth, UK.
The research builds on the advances seen in electric cars and could signal a new generation of propulsion systems for a broad range of defence applications.
“Our aim is to develop the next generation electric propulsion system which will be cleaner, greener, safer, more powerful, longer lasting, rechargeable and, in some cases, even able to operate underwater,” said BAE Systems Project Manager Clare Gribby.
“We’ve already invested around £1m in concept and design work and will be moving towards the build and integration phase of a demonstrator in early 2019. The demonstrator is due to be up and running by September 2020.”
BAE Systems is already working closely with a number of small, highly specialised companies in the UK and Europe to develop the project and also drawing on the expertise of BAE Systems colleagues in Rochester, UK, who produce electric drive systems for hybrid buses in a number of major metropolitan cities around the world, including London, Paris and Hong Kong.
At BAE Systems, they provide some of the world’s most advanced, technology-led defence, aerospace and security solutions and employ a skilled workforce of some 83,400 people in over 40 countries. Working with customers and local partners, they develop, engineer, manufacture and support products and systems to deliver military capability, protect national security and people and keep critical information and infrastructure secure.
And at BAE Systems Applied Intelligence, they help nations, governments and businesses around the world defend themselves against cybercrime, reduce their risk in the connected world, comply with regulation, and transform their operations.
They do this using their unique set of solutions, systems, experience and processes – often collecting and analysing huge volumes of data. These, combined with their Cyber Special forces – some of the most skilled people in the world, enable them to defend against cyber-attacks, fraud and financial crime, enable intelligence-led policing and solve complex data problems.
