Fuel efficiency is the last thing US Army will think of while designing a new vehicle for their ground troops. But I guess, like Bob Dylan sang once: “The times, they are a-changing”.

The world’s biggest army is indeed taking the green route and it is not just confined to their uniforms or vehicle camouflage paints.

They recently showcased their concept diesel-electric vehicle, which drinks close to 70 percent less gas than the standard issue up-armored Humvee the troops are using now. The new baby, rather unimaginatively named as “Fuel Efficient ground vehicle Demonstrator Bravo” or “FED Bravo” is by no means less tough.

The concept was developed at the Army’s Tank Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center (TARDEC) in Warren,Michigan with support from its industry partner World Technical Services, Inc. The Army brought the concept out in the open at the recent Society of Automotive Engineers World Congress last month.

Under the hood of FED Bravo is what makes it special. It’s all hybrid, though the main power-train is a huge 4.4-litre twin-turbo Ford V-8 worth 268 hp (huge by road-car standards that is).   Add to that, there is the road-coupled hybrid drive system which has a front-mounted electric engine and a rear-integrated hybrid system. Further fuel is saved with the new engine start-stop system which electronically shuts down the engine when the vehicle is idling and turns it on when the driver puts the foot down on the pedal.

Of course, it will need all that engine power for the Bravo is not just a thin metal shell. Built based on the original FED concept shown last year – the FED Alpha – the army has ensured Bravo is as thick-skinned as any Humvee out there. It uses an armored cab on top of a tubular space frame, which increases the vehicles rigidity-to-weight ratio. That means the vehicle is stiff even though it is lighter. Then there is the V-shaped hull for blast protection.

Apart from transporting troops and equipment and engaging enemies, the Bravo will have another use, as it is designed to be a mobile power house, capable of connecting to a microgrid to supply power to small military outposts.

The Army is not that clear on what the fuel economy of Bravo would be even though reports suggested a 8.2 miles per gallon on city roads and 14.2 miles per gallon on highway.

Of course, FED Bravo won’t be running on highways if brought into active service. And eventually, the mileage won’t matter either for the customer driving this vehicle; the average soldier would want his wheels to offer him fast transportation and decent armor protection. Hybrid or fuel efficiency or being green won’t matter to him, unless of course it’s camouflage green.

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It makes sense that the military wants to have eyes in the sky for surveillance, but when you’re that far away from your target, it can be pretty tough to really see what you want to see. You need more pixels, gigapixels perhaps, and in the case of the US Army, they’ve opted for 1.8 of them.

The A160 Hummingbird was recently unveiled with a new imaging system. Remember that 1.8 gigapixels is 100x more detail than what you’d get with your 18MP digital camera, and it’s usually only with multiple shots that we regular folk can stitch together a gigapixel photo. The kicker is that this hovering aircraft can send back real-time video streams at 10 frames a second too.

When hovering at an altitude of 20,000 feet, the camera has a field of view of almost 65 square miles. The army can then simultaneously track up to 65 targets within this field of view without having to decide which target is the priority. “If you have a bunch of people leaving a place at the same time, they no longer have to say, ‘Do I follow vehicle one, two, three or four,’” said program manager Brian Leninger. “They can say: ‘I will follow all of them, simultaneously and automatically.’”

The drones use the Autonomous Real-time Ground Ubiquitous Surveillance Imaging System (ARGUS-IS) first deployed last year. The first generation drones were manufactured by Boeing, but the military is holding a “full and open” competition for the second generation contract.

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The new weapon is called an Advanced Hypersonic Weapon and is capable of traveling around the world in under five hours. Although the army was the first to successfully demonstrate the technology, other departments such as the Air Force are also working on similar AHW vehicles.

The AHW vehicle was launched from the military’s Pacific Missile Range Facility on Kauai at about 1:30am and traveled more than 2,300 miles to Kwajalein Atoll in less than half an hour. The goal of the weapon is to allow prompt global strikes anywhere in the world in as little as an hour, and judging by the successful flight test it is more than capable of living up to this objective.

The purpose of Thursday’s test was actually to collect data on technologies that boost the hypersonic vehicle and allow it to glide. The US Army also was testing to see how the vehicle handled long-range flight. The weapon will also be able to maneuver to avoid flying over third party nations as it reaches its target and uses a precision guidance system to home in on its target.

Decades earlier delivering such strikes would have taken countless hours and required a traditional pilot. Technology has changed a lot whether it’s your iPhone, computer, or even military technology. Whether or not this weapon makes you feel safer or more worried is up to you, nonetheless it is an interesting piece of technology.

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The development kit, set for release this July, will allow third parties to create apps that can actually be used by soldiers in the field of battle. The eventual combat-ready Android smartphone will be called the Joint Battle Command-Platform (JBC-P) handheld device.

Not surprisingly, the mobile device will have a “ruggedised tactical sleeve or case” to protect it from the tough environment it’s bound to face. They’ll also outfit it with a series of existing military radios, like the GTRS, Netted Iridium satellite, and PRC 117G, as well as TIGR map-marking and OpenOffice.

Now we just have to see if this handheld will transform into a tactical robot for transversing hostile environments, all while having a glowing red eye and a gun at ready.

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