Essay by Eric Worrall
My question – will they be powered by Miliband’s giant flywheels?
Net zero plans for Armed Forces could ‘put soldiers at risk’
Military grandees query MoD’s ‘climate change agenda’ in pushing trials of electric combat vehicles
Ethan CroftSunday Political Correspondent
07 December 2024 8:00pm GMT
Ministers are forging ahead with plans to use electric vehicles (EVs) for combat on the battlefield despite warnings from military grandees that they could put the Armed Forces at risk.
The Telegraph has learnt that the Ministry of Defence will be ramping up testing of battlefield EVs next year at the Army’s Bovington Garrison in Dorset, home of the Tank Museum.
…
However, military grandees on Saturday called for the Government to think again before pressing ahead with the “crazy endeavour”, warning that a rush to net zero on the battlefield could put British troops at a disadvantage.
…“It is hard enough to keep the current vehicles supplied with fuel, that is a massive operation on its own – I just can’t see how it would possibly work with EVs.
Read more (paywalled): https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/12/07/net-zero-soldiers-at-risk-battlefield-evs-combat-warnings/
…
Just when you think the British government has reached peak stupid, they surprise us all by achieving some new level of absurdity.
What happens when the electric battlefield vehicle runs out of electricity? Do they ask the other side to please stop attacking for 8 hours until the solar panels complete the recharge?
On a positive note, we can’t fault the current British government for their effort to keep us entertained. Whenever I am stuck for something to write about, all I have to do is put “Miliband” or “Starmer” in my google search, and I have my next WUWT story.
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“Just when you think the British government has reached peak stupid”
Not even close to peak. In theory they have another 4½ years left to go.
This is your guy …
Stupid is as stupid does.
The UK is winning the European-wide idiocy contest!
Its recently elected elites are racking their brains to engulf all aspects of UK society and economy in woke idiocy, to cement the UK premiership at the bottom of the heap.
Bring in the Musk-supported Centrist Farage to end the self-destructive farce and lobotomize the Tory and Labor elites, so they will never rule again.
It’s Time To Start Blaming European Elites For Europe’s Malaise
?itok=5w4XgdpC
https://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/it-s-time-to-start-blaming-european-elites-for-europe-s-malaise
Authored by Ian Proud,
.
Europe is falling apart at the seams and it’s elites are sowing the seeds of Europe’s implosion…
.
.
In Georgia, the Americans and Europeans are actively sponsoring a coup d’Etat attempt to unseat the democratically elected Georgia Dream government, in circumstances that are genuinely baffling.
Having frozen indefinitely the EU membership accession process for Georgia in July of this year, Europeans feign to be up in arms at the Georgian government’s decision to confirm a freezing of talks until 2028 (which is much sooner than indefinite). Georgia acting as an independent, sovereign state is not allowed in Brussels.
Georgia’s ruling President, who lived in France for many decades, seems determined to stay in office to see through/continue to instigate the Color Revolution/regime change/violent coup d’Etat, despite her constitutionally allotted term coming to an end in December 2024.
She is co-ordinating with EU capitals to send demonstrators to keep the violent riots going.
Se is roundly applauded in EU capitals and in Washington as a modern-day Joan of Arc.
.
In Ukraine, from the very start of the war, it has always been clear, absent direct NATO involvement in the fight, Ukraine could never win.
Setting aside the immense human cost in lives lost, injuries suffered, and destruction since the expanded war started in 2022, Ukraine’s economy has suffered immense damage after US and European leaders encouraged Zelensky to fight to the last Ukrainian.
Zelensky illegally clings to power, because his term in office ended in May 2024.
He cannot regally partake in any negotiations with Russia
He is still lauded a hero by his many admiring, so-called democratic fans in the west.
“Zelensky illegally clings to power, because his term in office ended in May 2024.”
Not exactly.
https://constitutionnet.org/news/ukrainian-presidents-term-officially-ends-during-martial-law-constitutional-court-may-be-asked
“The Ukrainian constitution states this clearly,” said Andriy Mahera, of the Center of Policy and Legal Reform in Kyiv. “The president does not automatically lose his powers five years after inauguration. These powers are only removed when the newly elected president takes office, i.e., after elections.” Presidential and parliamentary elections are currently out of the question. Ukraine’s constitution places a temporary restriction on the former, whereas martial law bans both — in part , officials have said, to protect voters from harm. [ . . . ]
Bull manure.
When your term ends, you have to step down, and let the next guy run the show.
However, Zelensky ordered that no elections be held, because his approval rating is about 20%, and he decided to continue as a faux president,
The EU, US and NATO supports the farce, because they are running the show.
Zelensky is just their puppet, just as grifting and grafting Biden is their puppet.
But puppetry is about to end with Trump arriving on the scene
Go read that constitution, rather than relying on an opinion piece.
Follow up. I found the Ukrainian Constitution and the article I reference above is spot on.
Do not presume the US Constitution applies anywhere but the USA.
You really should read something other than rt.com and opinion blogs.
go back to Moscow and work in RT you Putin sponsored creep!
Monty Python has some serious competition….
I believe that these are the wrong trousers.
But what about the ammunition, all that noise and all those nitrates being emitted. Surely you have to use something less harmful to the environment. If they aren’t careful, the military could hurt someone and then they’d be in big trouble.
It all started with bans on running with scissors, but I never thought it would get to this level.
The word ‘offence’ takes on a totally new meaning. As in, “Your weapons cause me great offence. Get rid of them.”
Excellent point. Crossbows.
They have a very low environmental footprint print
So do small hand sized Rocks thrown from tiny Trebuchets
No, still requires forging metals. That means smoke and stuff.
They’ll use handbags for ammo.
Only the pretend women.
Longbows. After all the English perfected it.
But forging arrowheads requires fire, and Starmer is opposed to that.
Just flaking flint
Need ammo?
Just drop the EV tanks on the enemy.
Might be more effective than napalm.
He’s in charge of £billions of taxpayer loot and charged with finding ways to spunk it up the wall …
He has not learned to used knife and fork to slice his sandwich, or not allowed to have them, by court order
Talk about petty. Maybe he doesn’t like to slice his sandwich. Come on people.
The sandwich in the photo is sliced into two small pieces already. He is using two hands to hold it when he really only needs one. He is trying to fool himself into thinking that his sandwich is actually bigger than it really is. It’s a subconscious habit that he has developed.
(think of me next time you are eating a sandwich)
(And, Jeff, I just kidding around … 🙂
Is that armour-plated glass 🤔.
It’s likely designed with the probability of giving your enemy the onset of uncontrollable giggles at the mere sight of the absurdity thereby making it easier to take them prisoner
We were warned but …
As foreseen by by the prophets Monty Python:
The funniest joke in the world, UK’s enemies will die laughing uncontrollably
I did the sums once.. The battery pack to supply the equivalent energy to a Challenger tank, adjusting for fuel efficiency weighs more than the tank…
A 1200 hp engine to drive a battle tank for a few hours on rough terrain, while shooting takes a lot of diesel fuel, and would take a lot of energy from a battery, which would need to towed behind the tank. With such an army, a modern war would not be possible
Then attach the wheels/tracks and electric motors to the battery pack and give the soldiers a supply off rocks to throw from the battery platform. Go Army!!
A Challenger is made of that heavy energy intensive stuff – steel. I propose the ChallengerBEV is this large wooden Beaver…
Relax mike, it’s not going anywhere:
will be ramping up testing of battlefield EVs next year at the Army’s Bovington Garrison in Dorset, home of the Tank Museum
Straight to the museum, to make future children have a laugh.
No target practice for you nawty wussians.
The CO shouted charge and the men said where?
To the battery, of course. (Battery also has a miliary meaning.)
It’s a double entendre. Well, I thought it obvious.
The only way you can make a practical EV tank is by reducing the weight of the armour. Ouch.
Use 2″ thick Transparent Aluminum. Al-O-N
Cannons to the left of them.
Cannons to the right of them.
Oh, wait, those are batteries.
Hang on, I thought it was about reducing CO2, carbon dioxide, not CO, carbon monoxide.
With EVs, both. But not the carbon monoxide variant.
Commanding Officer…
Shall we call it the Pygmalion tank?
The Fabian window, attributed to George Bernard Shaw:
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Learn to kowtow. There’s a belt-and-road coming to Britain.
Insanity in the UK is reaching dazzlingly stupid levels. Milliband and Starmer should be made to test the prototype under real hostile fire.
Test it under a group of children throwing rocks.. See how long it keeps running.
where the heck could they get solar panels in a battlefield endeavor? A heavy tank, made much heavier by batteries, would need acres of panels, under good conditions, to have a chance of charging its battery in one day. Maybe, like NY, they are planning on those zero emission dispatchable MOBILE power plants being coalesced from the zero point energy field in time for their next war.
“Charge the battery!”
Which battery sarge, the artillery or the tank’s?
This reminded me to check in on the Ramsey’s.
It seems they made it, and although the BBC tells us “Their vehicle was powered for much of the journey of more than 18,000 miles (30,000km) by solar and wind energy”, I completely disbelieve it.
Apart from claiming “We’ve got an innovative solution in the works!”, they have been very cagey about how exactly it worked. They posted many pictures of the car charging at various dealers and tourist offices but not one picture of the “innovative solution”. I would have thought that would be the most exciting thing to report on.
So I suspect careful use of language. They may have had a windmill and some solar panels on a support vehicle, for verisimilitude, but until they show their work I call bullshit on the story. I say wind and solar contributed sod-all.
I envy them the trip though. If I could think of way to get other people to pay for me to have a holiday of a lifetime I’d do it.
“This reminded me to check in on the Ramsey’s.”
Do the Ramseys not know how to pluralize their name?
Woops. I usually catch that goof in time.
I should have stopped wasting time on this, but I have found an interview in which Chris Ramsey says, “We brought along a 7 kW gas generator for use near the poles.”
They also had a 5kW wind turbine but obviously were not so imprudent as to rely on it. We are not told how much power the windmill ever produced—if any. It might just have been along for the ride.
So, what hauled the gas generator and the gas tanks, and how did they move the wind turbine.
Massive FF support crew? !
There’s definitely a (large) FF support crew, no surprise there. They also said they had basically no wind during the time they wanted to use the wind turbine to charge their battery. No surprise there either!
It sure sounds like a fun time, even if their main conclusion is that you cannot, in fact, travel pole to pole with an EV. I wonder what’s in that Thales box on top! (Yes, I work for Thales, and no, I have no idea what that box is)
A 100 mile extension cord would do the trick. One per tank.
Now where to plug in the other end of the cable?
I have a suggestion…
This government seems hell bent on vanity projects whilst the old people freeze to death in their homes.
Miliband has just signed off a CCS project…
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/contracts-signed-for-uks-first-carbon-capture-projects-in-teesside
Indeed…
Rear echelon will have banks of diesel powered emergency generators – bonkers
The latest anti tank weapon, smoke bombs.
During the next armed conflict ensure those Ministers etc who want to adopt this hair-brained idea are, for a week or so, in the first armoured vehicle on the front line (hopefully in the bleak mid-Winter) when, of course, there would be no chance of any heating!
Are there any spaces free in the lunatic asylum??
How will this work on the battlefield? All EV carrying a diesel generator to recharge under artillery fire. The good news is they still have money left to burn to keep you warm.
Hybrids would make more sense.
“His name was Ernie, and he drove the fastest milk cart in the west” right up until a stale pork pie hit him in the eye and Ernie bit the dust.
That was only after Two Ton Ted had kicked Ernie’s emergency power provider mind, a horse named Trigger, that got Ernie’s blood boiling.
“Ernie was only 52 he didn’t want to die” and next time he will take a diesel engine into battle, and forget Trigger, he was nothing but trouble, as for Susan…..
The only thing that would work is something the size and weight of several tanks carrying a portable nuclear power station.
A very tempting ‘uncle target’
will they be powered by Miliband’s giant flywheels?
I’m surprised that that hoax is still being perpertrated. It was shown the first time that this claim was made that Ed Milliband had made no announcement about flywheels.
“What happens when the electric battlefield vehicle runs out of electricity? Do they ask the other side to please stop attacking for 8 hours until the solar panels complete the recharge?”
Surrender?
Not necessarily, but capture seems likely.
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/contracts-signed-for-uks-first-carbon-capture-projects-in-teesside
Aaaahh, but guys, you’ve missed the obvious solution.
Diesel powered generators! 😁
Diesel electric propulsion systems have been around a long time.
Germany had a prototype Tiger I that used diesel electric.
It was down selected due to a battery fire.
Hmmm…. Battery fires. Never heard of that before, eh?
/sarc /humor
Hmmm…. Battery fires.
Granted they would still (presumably) be heavily armored, but it seems to me it would be somewhat easier to take a tank out of commission by specifically targeting its battery.
A whole new meaning to a tiger in your tank!
I hate the waste of money. Has anyone explained that our net zero won’t affect global temperatures? Oh, Willie Eschenbach says seven ten thousandths of a degree C
Feet. The E-military vehicles will be powered by “feet” technology, a technology I learned about a long time ago as a child. I think I saw it on a science-based TV show called the “Flintstones”.
Go watch Soylent green where the bicycle generator charged the battery to power the single light bulb.
So the infantry follows peddling to generate electricity for the tank, rather that provide close support.
Good plan.
Take care to leave enough juice in the Lithium to hoist the white flag.
apparently, the Chechen’s have battle tested a Tesla cyber truck in battle and have found it lacking.
https://www.rt.com/russia/608815-cybertrucks-useless-war-chechen/