IN Brief:
- UK Defence Innovation has allocated £2.45 million excluding VAT to a two-stage development competition for TRL 4–6 technologies.
- An unfunded market engagement route covers systems at TRL 6 or above with commercial potential within 12 months.
- The Army has identified a requirement for more than 4,000 lightweight generators, but no replacement order has been placed through this challenge.
UK Defence Innovation has launched a £2.45 million Tactical Power Challenge to develop electrical generation, storage, charging and distribution technologies for the British Army. Announced on 15 October 2026, the competition addresses increasing demand from sensors, communications equipment, electronic warfare systems and uncrewed platforms operating away from established power infrastructure. A parallel, unfunded engagement route will assess equipment closer to commercial use.
Funding is available through the two-stage Innovative Tactical Power Solutions competition, which is aimed at Technology Readiness Levels (TRL) 4 to 6. These levels cover technology validated in laboratory and relevant environments but not yet demonstrated as a fully mature operational product. The £2.45 million budget, excluding VAT, will support selected development and demonstration work; it is neither a production award nor an order for generators or batteries. The competition is intended to conclude its project activity by March 2028.
Equipment at TRL 6 or above may instead be considered through Immediate Power Problem, a separate market engagement exercise without direct challenge funding. Applicants are expected to have a credible route to commercialisation within 12 months, and particularly relevant systems may be invited to Army trials, potentially at Warminster in Wiltshire. The two routes consequently address different levels of technical maturity. A successful demonstration would still be followed by whatever evaluation and purchasing decisions the Army considered necessary.
Deployed units increasingly need electricity for loads that behave very differently. A communications terminal may require continuous supply, a surveillance sensor can have predictable peaks, and charging an uncrewed aircraft may briefly demand much higher power. The generation and distribution equipment must accommodate those changes without destabilising connected loads. Energy capacity determines how long a battery can supply a system, while power rating determines how much electrical demand it can meet at a particular moment; a solution optimised for one is not automatically adequate for the other.
The challenge invites safer alternatives to lithium-ion batteries with equal or greater energy density, faster charging methods, novel generation systems, and integrated storage and distribution equipment. It also seeks soldier-carried and local generation, low-noise operation, and approaches that reduce resupply. These requirements introduce several competing engineering priorities. High energy density helps reduce carried mass, while peak power capability determines how quickly a battery can support demanding loads; the two measures are related but are not interchangeable.
Charging performance needs to be assessed alongside heat, cell protection, electrical connectors and available upstream supply. A rapid charger cannot deliver its advertised rate indefinitely if the source generator, battery chemistry or thermal controls impose restrictions. In deployed environments, electrical protection and connector compatibility also affect whether generators, storage modules and equipment from different suppliers can be operated together. The competition invites individual components as well as complete systems, allowing proposals aimed at particular bottlenecks in the power chain.
Fuel-driven generators remain a practical source of field electricity, although fuel deliveries, maintenance requirements, exhaust and noise complicate their use in some locations. Batteries can absorb short demand peaks or allow equipment to operate while a generator is switched off, but stored energy must still be replenished from an appropriate source. Combining generators, batteries and control electronics can reduce unnecessary generator running, provided the additional mass, cooling and charging requirements do not outweigh the gain. The competition is open to such integrated systems as well as individual enabling components.
Alongside the competition, the Army has identified a requirement for more than 4,000 Lightweight Field Generators as existing equipment approaches replacement. That is a potential future procurement requirement, rather than an order placed through the Tactical Power Challenge. Successful developments may eventually be considered for acquisition, but the Army has not chosen a battery chemistry, generator type or common architecture for those replacement systems.
The programme is being delivered with Australia’s Advanced Strategic Capabilities Accelerator, which is running related work on distributed tactical power management. UK proposals may be shared with Australian defence authorities for assessment, while outcomes from funded projects may also be shared with Australian and US partners under applicable information-sharing arrangements. This supports technical cooperation across allied programmes, although it does not establish a joint equipment order or a common manufacturing contract.
First-stage applications close at noon GMT on 10 November 2026, followed by decisions and the opening of the invitation-only second stage on 17 November. Final second-stage submissions are due by noon GMT on 15 December, with project demonstration activity scheduled to conclude by March 2028. Further system trials, qualification and acquisition decisions would then be needed before any developed technology entered regular Army service.
