Under the terms of this 10-month contract, Protonex will rapidly evolve its current man-portable power manager system making it smaller, lighter and easier to configure for a variety of different loads. The resulting Protonex high-performance power manager is expected to address the burdensome inefficiencies of existing battery and power management technologies by matching virtually any load with any available power source (e.g. batteries, fuel cells, solar) - enabling the military to more efficiently use their available energy sources for a wide range of applications.

The new system design will combine advances in ultra-high efficiency power conversion, power management and battery charging technology into one product solution. Capabilities of the enhanced power manager system will include: soldier battery monitoring, management and charging, power delivery to soldier systems, as well as advanced power harvesting and scavenging from available energy sources.

"Working with the US Army on this program, we will speed the refinement of our advanced portable power manager product, making it a more universal, invaluable power solution for soldiers," stated Greg Cipriano, VP, Marketing and Military Development for Protonex Technology Corporation. "This new contract represents valued follow-on support by ARO, which will enable us to provide critical tools for various military applications. We also expect to leverage this advanced technology into other core products for both military and commercial customers."