In a cooperative effort, Alupower, Inc., and Commonwealth Technology, Inc., recently completed the development of a Man-portable Aluminum-air hybrid battery for the Special Operations Forces (SOF) under a Phase II SBIR program. The Phase I SBIR program resulted in the design of a 12 and 24 vdc hybrid system consisting of an Aluminum-air semi-fuel cell and rechargeable secondary battery, interfaced with an electronics control module. This power source, name "Special Operations Forces Aluminum-air" or SOFAL, provides a cost effective approach for portable SOF electronic equipment. The Phase II development culminated in the delivery of five prototype units to the U.S. army Special Oeprations Command (USASOC) for field evaluation. Due to the short window of opportunity available for the field trial, only one unit was activated. The evaluation was conducted at Camp McKall, N. Carolina. The evaluation plan was to operate SINCGARS (AN/PRC-119A) radio and a Digital Message Data Group (DMDG KY-879/P) off the SOFAL for one week. Another set of the same equipment would be powered by the standard issue BA-5590/U LiSO_2 primary batteries as a control group. The exercise simulated a command post handling message traffic, both voice and data, 24 hours a day.
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