Safe, High-Power Battery for Sonobuoys

• The Navy has established a need to update the present high power sonobuoy power source used in Air Anti Submarine Warfare (ASW) Systems. Present technology for the ASW sonobuoy battery utilizes a primary Lithium/SO2 battery chemistry which is capable of providing 20, 10 second pulses drawing 5500 W of power at 65 V. The existing system offers a low cost, high power solution, however concerns have been raised over the safety of this chemistry. Under high rates of discharge, the SO2 cell generates excessive amounts of heat which cause the cells to vent, releasing toxic fumes to the surroundings. MaxPower offers a baseline Li/MnO2 cell system as replacement for the Li/ SO2. Unique in this baseline cell are the cathode formulation and superior solution properties that can sustain high discharge condition. We showed equivalent pulse data showing that the Li/MnO2 cell system can meet the established power requirements, and we will validate this capability at the full size cell hardware level.