Battery Technologies for Military, Drone, and Aerospace Applications

The needs of battery technology for electric aviation are greatly different from consumer electronics and electric ground vehicles. This talk will discuss how the lithium-ion battery cells of today can empower these technologies, and how the design and chemistry of these battery cells differ from those in other applications such as EVs. Battery pack design considerations for aerospace will also be highlighted, especially those around safety and thermal runaway management.

Powering military armaments and lethal unmanned systems demands specialized batteries capable of surviving extreme gun-launch shock and severe temperatures (-54°C to +71°C) after decades of storage. This strategic overview analyzes critical performance gaps in legacy reserve systems when faced with modern requirements for intelligent fuzing and loitering munitions. Future technology vectors are explored, including advanced materials, hybrid power concepts, and multi-modal power management. The briefing is supplemented by recent test data from in-house prototyping, demonstrating empirical progress and offering a forward-looking roadmap for developing more robust, volumetrically efficient power solutions for next-generation weapon systems.

Development of robust, flexible lithium-ion batteries is essential for wearable electronics. We identified major failure modes in conventional battery electrodes under repeated mechanical deformation and identified new strategies for improving flexibility and performance of batteries integrated into textiles. 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.

This presentation updates last year’s work by concentrating on three critical areas for high‑voltage battery integration in More‑Electric Aircraft. First, we examine interconnect reliability, addressing terminal and insulation wear at high altitude and elevated voltages. Second, we compare safety architectures—internal fusing within the battery assembly versus external fusing—highlighting trade‑offs for failure containment. Third, we present best‑practice design guidelines for battery‑management‑system (BMS) circuit cards. In contrast, the previous talk focused on vehicle‑level load‑integration topics. Additional discussion covers: (a) the benefits of modular, lower‑voltage sub‑assemblies for optimized air‑frame fit and (b) practical considerations for harness routing and installation of high‑voltage packs. Collectively, these insights provide designers with actionable strategies to mitigate reliability risks and streamline integration of high‑voltage energy storage in future aircraft.

Military environments are among the most challenging and demanding settings for a system. Battery-reliant platforms operating in these conditions require rigorous engineering to ensure predictable, reliable, and safe performance. From corrosion and vibration to extreme temperature, humidity, sand, dust, and salt fog, successful certification and deployment depends on understanding the environmental profile it will face over its service life.

Lithium-ion cell advancements enable new performance frontiers for electric aircraft such as BETA's ALIA platform. Yet higher-performing cells can change thermal runaway behavior, and those changes may not scale predictably. Our work asks a fundamental question: Can cell-level or small-scale test data alone predict how a full system will behave during thermal runaway? The answer determines whether a “drop-in” cell replacement is a viable path to increasing battery performance.

Open-source flight simulation environments such as ArduPilot and PX4 model aerodynamics and control in detail, but the battery is often reduced to a simplified capacity or state-of-charge representation. This presentation shows how coupling blueflite Cobalt flight data with AVL battery and powertrain simulation and weather-aware 4D mission analysis closes that gap, enabling virtual mission testing that exposes thermal limits, energy reserves, and failsafe margins before flight.

This presentation will share findings from a comprehensive market survey and stakeholder engagement effort examining barriers to the adoption of commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) high-voltage battery systems within Department of Defense (DoD) platforms. Through engagement with battery manufacturers, DoD program offices, systems integrators, and regulatory stakeholders, the project identified key challenges related to system compatibility, safety and certification requirements, acquisition processes, and lifecycle sustainment. The presentation will highlight major insights, discuss opportunities to accelerate battery technology transition, and showcase how collaborative Battery Forums are helping align government and industry stakeholders to advance electrification and energy resilience across defense applications.

Scaling domestic lithium-ion cell production is critical to strengthening US battery supply chains and meeting growing military and domestic demand, particularly for drones. This presentation shares lessons learned from scaling cell production in Fargo, North Dakota, from pilot batches to high-volume manufacturing. It covers process control, workforce development, equipment optimization, and yield improvement, providing practical insights into accelerating factory ramp-up while building a reliable, high-quality domestic battery manufacturing base.

Metallic particle contaminants, or foreign object debris (FOD), threaten battery safety by causing internal short circuits. While CT scans are an effective detection method, manual analysis is time-consuming. Here, we present Glimpse’s automated particle detection workflow. By using cells with embedded FOD to build a validated ground-truth dataset, our algorithm reliably identifies contaminants across various sizes and compositions. This innovation significantly improves efficiency and accuracy in non-destructive FOD detection for quality assurance.

Battery cell standardization is essential to scaling unmanned aerial systems while maintaining performance, interoperability, and supplier flexibility. Building on SAE JA1016 for Group 1 UAS pouch cells, current work applies parametric modeling, cross-format compatibility, and standardized characterization and application specific protocols to advance development of Group 2 and Group 3 cell standards. The approach establishes common technical requirements supporting scalable manufacturing, streamlined qualification, and resilient battery supply chains.