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Cummins developing revolutionary new diesel engine for U.S. Army | Fox News

Cummins Inc. has landed a $47.4 million contract from the National Advanced Mobility Consortium to develop a revolutionary new type of diesel engine for the U.S. Army that promises to be lighter and more efficient that those currently in use. The Advanced Combat Engine (ACE) project is a joint venture between Cummins and California-based Achates…

Cummins Inc. has landed a $47.4 million contract from the National Advanced Mobility Consortium to develop a revolutionary new type of diesel engine for the U.S. Army that promises to be lighter and more efficient that those currently in use.

The Advanced Combat Engine (ACE) project is a joint venture between Cummins and California-based Achates Power, who has designed an opposed-piston engine that works on a two-stroke combustion cycle and eliminates the need for a valvetrain.

via www.foxnews.com

Opposed piston diesel engines have been tried before (in aviation applications, of all places) but with only moderate success.

Has technology advanced enough to make them practical?

The article claims a possible bump on 50% power density over the benchmark Cummins VTA-903T that powers the Bradley and several other vehicles. A boost from 600ph to 900hp in the same space would have serious implications for future armor design.

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Responses to “Cummins developing revolutionary new diesel engine for U.S. Army | Fox News”

  1. Captain Ned

    New? Try to sell that to the bubble-heads. We’ve been using opposed-piston designs on subs since WWII.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairbanks_Morse_38_8-1/8_diesel_engine

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  2. George V

    This may work – there have been some successful opposed piston designs. The diesel subs of the US fleet used Fairbanks-Morse opposed piston diesel engines. According to Wikipedia a variant of the engine is still used on US nuclear subs.
    The Fairbanks-Morse engine was also used in that company’s diesel locomotives after the war. They were not as successful as the other major competitors of the day. I vaguely recall reading that maintenance was more difficult than on locomotive engines with a traditional cylinder hear, and that reliability suffered in a railroad environment as opposed to more steady state marine operations.

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  3. Esli

    Much-needed. Would be nice to up-engine a Brad to where it could almost keep up with an Abrams again. Yea, i said almost. I’ve beaten every Brad I’ve raced.

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  4. LT Rusty

    Navy still uses opposed-piston diesels in a LOT of places, and has for a very long time. As George V mentioned, the old diesel boats used them, and even current nuke boats use them for the emergency generator. They’re in plenty of other places as well.

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  5. timactual

    “The Advanced Combat Engine (ACE)”
    Really? A “Combat” engine? “Advanced Diesel Engine” not virile enough? Shouldn’t that have been in Bold type? With an exclamation point?
    Makes me want to just crawl into a corner with my Combat! Woobie.

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  6. McThag

    TimActual…
    It will be paired with the Advanced Noncombat Engine which will be used most of the time…

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