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This Defense Intelligence Reference Document was prepared by the Defense Intelligence Agency's Defense Warning Office and dated 1 November 2010. It is one of a series of advanced technology reports produced under the Advanced Aerospace Weapons System Applications Program. The report reviews how ultracapacitors work, how they compare with batteries, their history and materials, and their commercial, military and aerospace uses. It concludes that new materials and cell designs will raise energy density and that the U.S. government must understand the devices' spectral signatures.
From the source: Release of 2026-09-18 Incident: 11/1/10, Las Vegas, Nevada. Released with redactions. This document is a Defense Intelligence Reference Document (DIRD), a technical reference format used by the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) to capture baseline knowledge on a specific topic for later analytic use. DIRDs are best understood as reference and synthesis products rather than as original research. It is one of 38 DIRDs produced under the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program (AAWSAP) between 2009 and 2011. Because AAWSAP’s scope permitted a broad range of supporting topics, not every DIRD in the series directly concerns aerospace systems or future threat assessment. The following summary reflects the DIRD’s scope and framing at the time of writing and should not be read as implying current validation of the concepts discussed. This DIRD surveys ultracapacitors as high-power energy-storage devices and argues that their main value lies in extremely rapid charge and discharge, very long cycle life, and usefulness in systems that need short bursts of power rather than sustained energy delivery. The report explains how ultracapacitors differ from batteries, reviews the materials and cell designs that determine their performance, and emphasizes that they are especially useful for power stabilization, backup power, load leveling, regenerative braking, and other applications where fast energy transfer matters more than total stored energy. It also notes their drawbacks, including lower energy density, self-discharge, and voltage-management requirements that limit their usefulness as stand-alone replacements for batteries in many applications. The document presents ultracapacitors as a maturing and increasingly important technology whose most credible aerospace and military uses lie in pulsed-power, missile and munitions systems, electric propulsion support, and other hybrid power architectures rather than in long-duration primary energy storage.
UNCLASSIFIED1fFOR 8ffl@IAL tt9! e"t I Contents Summary................................................................................................................iv Chapter 1: Concept Overview ................................................................................ 1 Batteries and Ultracaps ...................................................................................... 3 History ............................................................................................................... 5 Chapter 2: Materials Technology ........................................................................... 8 Electrolytes ........................................................................................................ 8 Electrodes ............................................................................................................................................................................ 9 Chapter 3: Applications ....................................................................................... 13 Electronics and Telecommunications ................................................................ 13 Industrial ......................................................................................................... 13 Transportation ................................................................................................. 14 Aerospace ........................................................................................................ 15 Chapter 4: Recent Developments ........................................................................ 17 CNTs and Advanced Carbons ............................................................................ 17 Thin Films ........................................................................................................ 20 Magnetic Capacitors ......................................................................................... 21 Chapter 5: Future Developments ......................................................................... 25 Chapter 6: Conclusions ........................................................................................ 27 Chapter 7: Endnotes ............................................................................................ 28 Figures Figure 1. Ultracaps in Various Configurations . ...................................................... 1 Figure 2. Operation of an Ultracapacitor................................................................3 Figure 3. Ragone Plot.............................................................................................5 Figure 4. Electrolytic Capacitor as Designed and Patented by SOHIO.....................5 Figure 5. Activated Carbon Porosity.....................................................................10 Figure 6. Ultracapacitor Use in a Forklift................................................................14 Figure 7. CNT Forest................................................................................................18 Figure 8. Transmission Electron Microscope Image of Graphene ......................... 19 Figure 9. Relationship Between Average Pore Size and Normalized Specific Capacitance............................................................................................................. 20 UNCLASSIFIEO/fFOA OFFI&I:.l.b YS& ONLY ii
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Official release, from the pursue collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 34 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.