When every piece of equipment use it’s own special battery pack the problems just multiply.
If one of the big defense contractors made this stuff, there wouldn’t be a problem, but as long as the needed products come from small consumer companies, you end up with a different size and type of battery for every piece of equipment, and a separate charger for those that are rechargeable. It’s FUBAR.
Hell, before the first Gulf War the Marines cleared out every camping store in San Diego county to get the stuff necessary to live in the desert. Individual Marines, because the stuff that was issued was worthless in the conditions. The Marines figured that out by training runs in the California desert.
]]>The Aus military (esp ground troops) are trained to find and use all kinds of energy sources, from what many would consider the sublime to the ridiculous. 🙂 Depending on where we are going, most of the equipment are designed to use whatever power is available locally and is quite adaptable. Some troopers carry various adapters for comm’s systems or battery chargers and even collapsible solar panels. I once tested a thermal incline power generation kit. Was pretty *cool* actually and worked surprisingly well! We don’t take anything in battlefield conditions for granted. 🙂
]]>At the company/squadron level you want stuff that works and doesn’t depend on hard supply lines to use. Generators attract trouble – solar panels don’t. If you are going to hand out equipment that requires power, front line units need their own power sources that don’t involve constant re-supply that tells the world where they are.
]]>Agent orange, daisy cutters, DU munitions, various NBC WMD’s, etc, etc! 😈
]]>