BAE Systems and QinetiQ to Pursue Electric Drive on Combat Vehicles

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Sterling Heights-based BAE Systems today announced the signing of a teaming agreement with QinetiQ to incorporate new technology for electric drive mobility systems into combat vehicles.

The agreement combines BAE Systems’ capabilities as a vehicle designer, developer, manufacturer, and systems integrator with the electric drive information offered by QinetiQ, a United Kingdom-based science and engineering defense company.

The technology offers improved fuel efficiency, reliability, and mobility performance, as well as reduced life-cycle costs and increased electrical power available to the platform. The combination allows for advanced weaponry, communications, radar, and field power generation on vehicles.

“This strategic partnership with QinetiQ in the electric drive field ensures we are offering our customers a mature, low-cost technology that can enhance the performance of current and future combat vehicles,” says Dean Medland, vice president of combat vehicle programs at BAE Systems. “This positions us to be a leader in the market as more platforms across the world move toward an electric drive architecture.”

QinetiQ’s E-X-Drive transmission for tracked combat vehicles began in 1999 as an alternative to more complex and limiting traditional drive systems. The company has worked in partnership with BAE Systems since 2004 to evolve E-X-Drive into a mature technology. Additionally, QinetiQ’s counterpart for wheeled vehicles, the hub-drive Unit, is currently being explored by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) as part of its Ground X-Vehicle Technologies program.