Combat Cool™, Microclimate Cooling Systems for Military Vehicles

QinetiQ North America has been involved in the development of microclimate cooling systems for military vehicles more than a decade. Three types of systems are currently available. They all cool garments worn directly against the skin to enhance heat removal from the body.

Air Warrior Microclimate Cooling Subsystem

Flight-qualified hardware developed for UH-60, CH-47D and OH-58D helicopters has also been installed on the M9Armored Combat Earthmover. This system provides 324W of cooling in an ambient temperature of 125° F; more cooling at lower ambient temperatures. The cooler weighs only 13 lbs, runs on 28 VDC power, and draws no more than 12A under all conditions. The system began production in 2003. It was developed under contract to the Air Warrior Program at Redstone Arsenal, AL.

AH-64D Apache Microclimate Cooling Subsystem

This system uses cool air from the Environmental Control System (ECS) to cool both the pilot and copilot. Up to 360W of cooling is available. The cooling hardware weighs about 8.5 lbs per crew member (total of 17 lbs). This project was also done under contract with Redstone Arsenal.

Combat Cool Microclimate Cooling Subsystem for Humvees

Adapted from technology developed for the Apache, this system also uses cool air supplied from the vehicle’s air conditioning system to chill up to four soldiers riding in ground vehicles. It runs on 28 VDC and draws less than 2A. This particular variant was designed around the commercial air conditioning system in the Humvee, although it can be adapted for other vehicles as well. A total of 500 systems were delivered for field trials in Iraq in 2005 under contract to PM TV at the U.S. Army TACOM.

For more information, please email TSGinfo@QinetiQ-NA.com