Battery Technologies for Military and Aerospace Applications

Developing standardized battery systems for small uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) is essential to enable interoperability, safety, and scalability across civilian and defense applications. This presentation explores the creation of unified battery standards for dual-use Group 1 UAVs, highlighting how standardization fosters reliability and lifecycle efficiency while driving aggregated demand for high-performance pouch cells. Harmonized specifications can unlock cost reductions, enhance supply resilience, and accelerate adoption across both commercial and military UAV sectors.

The Starship Launch Vehicle is the next generation of super heavy launch vehicles, standing in a class of power and capabilities of its own. It also features a brand new topology of CONOPs, where the battery system becomes the backbone. In this presentation, we present the overall concept of the Starship electrical thrust vector control and the SpaceX approach to delivering a rapidly reusable, human rated launch vehicle

Establishing a domestic lithium-ion battery cell factory is a complex endeavor, particularly for Uncrewed Aircraft System (UAS) applications that demand various cell formats, extreme performance, and specialized chemistries. This presentation outlines key considerations - including capital investment, regulatory compliance, facility design, equipment selection, technology scale-up, and customers acquisition. We will also highlight Packet Digital’s factory building progress and cell testing results from its U.S.-based high-performance pouch cell manufacturing initiative.

• Challenges in domestic lithium-ion cell manufacturing for UAS applications.
  
• Factory design, equipment selection, and process scale-up considerations.
• Lessons learned from Packet Digital’s Fargo-based facility development and pilot production.
• Performance validation and implications for U.S. defense and commercial supply chains.

This presentation explores how advances in battery technology are transforming aerospace and related industries. Covering high-energy-density chemistries, safety and thermal management, and system integration, it highlights how these innovations enable lighter, more efficient, and sustainable power solutions. Attendees will gain insight into selecting and optimizing battery technologies to meet the demanding performance and reliability needs of aerospace and beyond.

Amprius Technologies is powering a new era of aviation and defense performance with silicon-anode batteries delivering record energy and power density. Reaching up to 450 Wh/kg and 10C discharge, Amprius cells extend mission range and endurance by 50–100%, recharge rapidly, and sustain high output under extreme conditions. From uncrewed aircraft to electric propulsion, Amprius enables greater payloads, longer missions, and faster readiness for next-generation aerospace and defense systems.

Explore the evolution of mission-critical energy solutions, leveraging novel battery technology to enhance the survivability and performance of next-gen defense systems, including hybrid vehicle powertrains and directed-energy weapons. This forum focuses on high TRL solutions that can be implemented into current projects and operate reliably across all global theaters. These advancements improve survivability through reduced noise, minimized heat signatures, and enhanced power redundancy, offering strategic advantages in contested environments.

Department of War (DoW) missile and munition fuzing and subcomponents continue to advance in design and capability to meet the current and future ammunition and munitions system requirements. These advanced requirements include extreme environments and temperatures, while maintaining high reliability. Advanced fuze and munitions power sources are vital to provide increased power and capacity for the overall systems. U.S. Army DEVCOM Armaments Center has established leading laboratory, power source prototyping, and testing capabilities for the development and evaluation of next generation munition power sources. The expanded prototyping capabilities include the ability to integrate novel materials into in-house fabricated prototype power sources, such as thermal reserve batteries. Unique testing facilities are then utilized to evaluate the thermal reserve battery prototypes under representative gun-launch environments enabling the ability to raise the technology from TRL 2 to TRL 6 and beyond. This presentation will highlight the exclusive laboratory, prototyping, and testing capabilities, as well as offer opportunities to partner on collaborative projects with the goal to innovate fuze and munitions power sources.

As demand for flexible, lightweight wearable electronics grows, development of robust, flexible lithium-ion batteries is essential. We conducted a systematic study of failure modes in conventional and flexible batteries under repeated mechanical deformation, focusing on key components like current collectors, electrodes, interconnections, and packaging. Our research elucidates how repeated flexing impacts battery reliability and identifies mitigation strategies for enhancing the performance and durability of high energy density, wearable power sources.

Anthro Proteus is a new class of injectable phase change electrolytes that allows for the production of high-performance batteries while using existing manufacturing processes. The liquid-to-solid phase transition stabilizes high-energy-density silicon anodes by forming an elastic binder network and improves cell ruggedness, mechanical strength, and safety. This presentation details the performance advantages of cells fabricated using Anthro Proteus in DoD relevant cell chassis and test conditions.

As defense and aerospace systems demand higher power, faster charging, and greater mission reliability, the battery technologies leading the market in 2026 will be shaped not only by chemistry, but by intelligent design, AI-driven optimization, and architecture.For these rapidly evolving sectors, mass-produced, one-size-fits-all batteries are no longer sufficient. As the industry enters a new era of application-specific energy storage, batteries can be optimized around mission requirements at a level not achievable through mass production. This talk will explore the battery technologies expected to lead defense and aerospace applications in 2026, and examine how advances in battery architecture, particularly 3D Porous Current Collectors, enable this shift while supporting scalable manufacturing and broad chemistry compatibility.

Once cylindrical cell designs exceed >265 Wh/kg, we've found that thermally stable separator designs greatly increase the consistency for nail penetration tolerance. High speed radiography and post test CT imaging provide unique insights into the internal short isolation phenomena provided by thermally unstable metallized polymer current collectors.

Battery quality control is critical for aerospace applications, where safety and reliability are paramount. We supported NASA’s Starliner program by CT scanning 200 cylindrical cell assemblies. Our automated inspection algorithms measured key battery features, identifying both anode overhang defects and metallic particle contaminants and validating these results with teardowns. Our findings demonstrate the value of high-throughput CT scanning for aerospace qualification workflows, reducing defect escape rates and mitigating safety risks.