• Voroxpete
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    4 hours ago

    In the case of military vehicles, hydrogen is about the greenest option that we’re gonna get. No one is going to make a battery powered AFV, because where the fuck would you charge it?

    • DrunkenPirate@feddit.org
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      3 hours ago

      Who if not the Germans built an electric tank in 2020 https://efahrer.chip.de/news/geraeuschlose-einsaetze-weltweit-erster-elektro-panzer-kommt-aus-deutschland_103179

      Sounds crazy at first but comes with some good advantages: it can cross rivers as it doesn’t need air for combustion, it’s silent, and you can load it anywhere at the battle field if you have solar panels, time and sun. Still you can rely on military logistics to carry a swap battery. But isn’t the military supply chain the first target to disrupt? My two cents, this is the next thing at battle fields.

      Oh, and if all your equipment runs on electricity, you can load and reload power at your needs. Tank needs power but car not? Combat robot out if power and car is full? Transfer the power

      • Miles O'Brien@startrek.website
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        1 hour ago

        Honestly if MILITARY applications are what kicks renewable energy and mass storage into high gear, I won’t be surprised, but I will be disappointed.

        But hey, improvement is still improvement and if a military organization sees renewable as the future, they’re gonna try to make sure they get there first. As long as whoever gets there shares the progress with the rest of the world, I’m okay with it.

        But who am I kidding, it’s gonna be China or the US and the rest of the world won’t see shit for decades due to suppression of research and technology that would allow for similar specs to be achieved privately…

        … How credible is my aluminum foil hat guy?

        I must admit though, it’d be cool to see an armored combat battery sliding across a field to quick charge a tank that died mid-battle. 10 seconds of charging to get it up and running, and the battery moves to the next low power thing. I’m imagining a semi-autonomous hot-swap of a battery compartment and eventually recharging like modern airplane mid-air refueling. Insert Rod A into Slot A and wait a little bit. The faster they want it to charge, the more they’ll dump into R&D.

      • zaphod@sopuli.xyz
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        49 minutes ago

        Any reasonably sized pv installation near a battlefield will definitely not look suspicious on reconnaissance images.

      • Track_Shovel@slrpnk.net
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        1 hour ago

        Tanks are going the way of the battle ship though. Drones are doing a lot of the stuff they can do, and a lot of things they can’t.

        • xavier_berthiaume@jlai.lu
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          36 minutes ago

          I’m not super familiar with the matter, but what do you mean by “going the way of the battle ship”? Do you mean they’re becoming more obsolete because of their size/utility compared to drones?

      • aard@kyu.de
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        2 hours ago

        Still you can rely on military logistics to carry a swap battery. But isn’t the military supply chain the first target to disrupt?

        That’s true as well for hydrogen, though. And I guess there’s a higher chance of getting access to “power” somewhere in the field than finding a hydrogen tank. Also, energy density of lithium batteries is higher than for hydrogen storage.

      • gravitas_deficiency
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        3 hours ago

        Yes, obviously, putting explosives and projectile propellants in an armored vehicle is dangerous and should be avoided

        /s

        OSHA is not a credible military threat

        • FundMECFSResearch@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          2 hours ago

          Right, but you are going to want to choose a fuel that has the least chance of flaming up if you’re making a military vehicle.

          Hydrogen has (compared to petroleum) a Wider Flammability Range, Lower Ignition Energy (0.02 millijoules) which is really low and much smaller than petroleum, and a higher diffusion rate.

          All of which make it more likely to go kaboom.