Defense One | By: Marcus Weisgerber | October 04, 2017:
American automaker General Motors has produced a hydrogen-fuel-cell-powered chassis that executives say could allow the U.S. military to move equipment and supplies around the battlefield more efficiently and safely.
Called SURUS, for Silent Utility Rover Universal Superstructure, the vehicle resembles a flatbed truck trailer or even a railroad flatcar. Powered by two electric motors and four-wheel steering, it is designed to be flexible enough to be reconfigured for various missions, powerful enough to replace the trucks that drag heavy things around today’s battlefields, and agnostic about whether it is driven by a human, remote control, or an autonomous driving module.
“We think we can solve real problems for the modernization of the military, not just replacing vehicles that they have now, but making them more efficient, more capable,” Charlie Freese, executive director of GM’s Global Fuel Cell Business, said in an interview this week.
The company plans to unveil SURUS — named for the battle elephant that carried Hannibal and his generals to victory — next week at the Association of the U.S. Army’s annual mega trade show and conference in Washington.
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