The Department of National Defence is spending $1.2 million to study whether hydrogen-powered, zero-emission light armoured vehicles could one day become a reality, despite acknowledging the technology does not currently exist for military use.A newly issued contract calls for industry experts to conduct an 18-month digital feasibility study examining the potential for a solid-state, hydrogen-powered light armoured vehicle weighing up to 45,000 pounds.Blacklock's Reporter says according to the department, the study is part of the federal government's effort to meet Treasury Board climate targets while maintaining Canada's military capabilities."The current mandate from the Treasury Board in the Greening Government Strategy is for the department to reduce emissions from operations to net zero while continuing to provide Canada with effective operational capability," the department wrote in its procurement notice.Officials said military fleets are expected to adopt environmentally friendly technologies and low-carbon fuels when they become available, affordable, operationally compatible and practical.The department acknowledged, however, that "there are currently no zero emission platforms" for light armoured vehicles.Instead, the contract is intended to determine whether such a vehicle could eventually be developed.The resulting report is expected to be broad enough to share publicly as well as with Canada's allies and defence partners."This study is intended to be academic in nature," the procurement notice states.National Defence said the Canadian Army has no realistic path toward achieving net-zero emissions if it continues relying on diesel and gasoline-powered equipment."Without the ability to operate and be sustained using alternate fuels, the Canadian Army has no pathway to procure and field zero emission platforms," the notice states..The latest initiative follows a broader push by the department to reduce its environmental footprint.Under its 2018 Defence Energy and Environment Strategy, National Defence proposed measures including installing wind turbines on military bases, increasing the use of clean electricity and encouraging military personnel to bicycle, use public transit and carpool.The strategy also set targets for all military bases to use clean power by 2025 and called for at least 30% of departmental vehicles to be electric.Many of those objectives have since passed without public updates on whether they were achieved.Previous research commissioned by the department has also raised doubts about the practicality of electric military vehicles.A 2019 report by Defence Research and Development Canada concluded hybrid diesel-electric tactical vehicles would be difficult to justify financially because fuel savings were unlikely to offset their higher purchase costs.The report also highlighted technical challenges, particularly in cold climates.Researchers noted lithium-ion batteries lose capacity in low temperatures and can have difficulty charging below 0 C, creating additional operational concerns for military vehicles expected to function year-round in harsh environments.The report further observed that while the U.S. Army has experimented with hybrid military vehicles since the late 1990s, the technology remained prohibitively expensive and operationally impractical.
