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Lets not forget, ALL of the NATO partners use 24 VDC systems on ALL of their equipment also. Military equipment will never go to another voltage. The chaos involved with that kind of change is incomprehensible. A million years ago, before the formation of MEP, Mobile Electric Power, the generator world was different. Gen sets, the same as trucks were often purchased to fit the job. Meaning, the equipment had to perform is job, and the lowest bidder got the contract. This below is an extract from the history of MEP.
The PM-MEP was founded during the Vietnam Conflict. When the US Forces went into Vietnam in the mid-1960's, they found an exorbitant demand for electrical power, but at the same time their generator fleet was a logistically not supportable hodge-podge of over 2000 different makes and models. Not only were repair parts unavailable, there was no interoperability among adjacent units -- even within the same Service.
In 1967, the DoD established a Multi-Service Working Group to identify solutions to this intolerable situation. After a thorough study, the Working Group recommended that the DoD establish a Standard Family of Generators for use by all services. The DoD codified this decision in "Standardization of Mobile Electric Power Generating Sources" (DoD Directive 4120.11). At the same time, they created the Project Manager - Mobile Electric Power (PM-MEP) as the DoD Single Manager for generators to implement and enforce the provisions of the DoD Directive. Because the Army was the largest user of mobile electric generators, the PM-MEP was assigned to the Army for management, but supported by all Services.
Most folks in the forum have never seen anything but 24 volt systems. In early 1973, I had the misfortune to be caught up in this "New Transformation" brought on by PM-MEP. We were running 52300 Stewart and Stevens 45 KW gen sets, and received the new MEP-115A, (the same basic thing as the MEP-006A). The big difference was, the 52300 was 24 VDC, POSITIVE ground. The new gen set was 24 VDC Negative ground. No one told us anything about this "little" differance. We quickly burnt up three new gen sets, in our Company alone. No, a change will never happen. Simply never happen.
The PM-MEP was founded during the Vietnam Conflict. When the US Forces went into Vietnam in the mid-1960's, they found an exorbitant demand for electrical power, but at the same time their generator fleet was a logistically not supportable hodge-podge of over 2000 different makes and models. Not only were repair parts unavailable, there was no interoperability among adjacent units -- even within the same Service.
In 1967, the DoD established a Multi-Service Working Group to identify solutions to this intolerable situation. After a thorough study, the Working Group recommended that the DoD establish a Standard Family of Generators for use by all services. The DoD codified this decision in "Standardization of Mobile Electric Power Generating Sources" (DoD Directive 4120.11). At the same time, they created the Project Manager - Mobile Electric Power (PM-MEP) as the DoD Single Manager for generators to implement and enforce the provisions of the DoD Directive. Because the Army was the largest user of mobile electric generators, the PM-MEP was assigned to the Army for management, but supported by all Services.
Most folks in the forum have never seen anything but 24 volt systems. In early 1973, I had the misfortune to be caught up in this "New Transformation" brought on by PM-MEP. We were running 52300 Stewart and Stevens 45 KW gen sets, and received the new MEP-115A, (the same basic thing as the MEP-006A). The big difference was, the 52300 was 24 VDC, POSITIVE ground. The new gen set was 24 VDC Negative ground. No one told us anything about this "little" differance. We quickly burnt up three new gen sets, in our Company alone. No, a change will never happen. Simply never happen.