Running wars on batteries

From foot-slogging infantry to the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, weapon designers look to high-performance electric batteries to deliver more capability. On the ground, increased demand for battery power comes from soldiers fitted with personal radios to keep them plugged into the battlefield network, as well as night-vision goggles and other electrical equipment. In the air, engineers have discarded hydraulics to drive the F-35's flight control flaps and are using electricity instead. That calls for a high-performance, 270-volt backup battery that can provide juice to fly a jet at 40,000 feet. In the sea, silver-based batteries allow heavyweight torpedoes to hunt for an hour and accelerate to 50 knots.

Saft, based in Bagnolet in the southern suburbs of Paris, France, makes batteries for civil and military applications on land, sea, air and space. Thus a military trend toward fielding more electronic equipment should spell easy business success for Saft. But there are headwinds, as readers of the commodities pages will know. Rising metals prices dented Saft's earnings for the first half of this year, with soaring demand for nickel from stainless steel makers crimping profits - nickel prices were at $45,000 per metric ton in the first half of 2008. Saft paid out an extra 25 million euros for raw materials, reducing the profit line. The chronically weak U.S. dollar also hurt profits, as some 40% of sales are denominated in dollars.

Ground troops are heavy users of lithium batteries. Every time troops deploy, demand surges. Saft made 18 million euros in sales of lithium batteries to the Army last year. Primary, or nonrechargeable, lithium batteries are in demand in the military market, offering lightness and power. Lithium prices were around $7,000 to $8,500 per ton [March 2008]. Much of the demand for lithium batteries comes from the global automobile market. In the military aircraft market, the choice of lithium for the F-35 is due partly to efforts to shave weight off the stealthy plane. A contract with the F-35 program, notionally set at 3,000 aircraft, is worth hundreds of millions of dollars for Saft. The most dynamic market is what Saft calls new defense systems, including rechargeable batteries for hybrid vehicles in the U.S. Army's Future Combat Systems program. "Lithium's the answer," Saft CEO John Searle said. "It's an enabling technology. Kilowatts per kilo, it's orders of magnitude better than any other technology."

- As in many areas of technology, the military leads the way.

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