Mobile energy depot feasibility study: summary report

[a_majoor]

Can't say the were not forward thinking back in the day, but carrying around your own nuclear reactor to make a formation independent of much of the logistics train for fuel and energy is really forward (unless you are aboard a nuclear aircraft carrier....)

https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc1021779/?q=mobile%20energy%20depot#description-content-main

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Declassified 28 Aug 1973. Various methods of producing and using nuclear power for military land vehicles and other military equipment were investigated and evaluated. A nuclear-powered mobile energy depot (MED) would move with advancing armies and produce vehicle fuels from materials readily available in the field. This would make mechanized units independent of external fuel supplies for extended periods, and permit them to move quickly and easily to areas impossible for units that depend on the customary fuel supply lines. Many possible MED systems were evaluated on the basis of energy sources, fuel manufacturing (by both conventional and chemonuclear processes), fuel storage and transportation, and fuel utilization in both present-day internal-combustion engines and power units of the future (i.e., fuel cells). The applications of more than a dozen MED systems to vehicular propulsion were studied. (auth)

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