Batteries: A Strategic Asset for National Security

The battery narrative largely focuses on electric vehicles (EVs) and electronics, but batteries also play a pivotal role in defense applications, a segment that is becoming key amid heightened geopolitical tensions.

From emergency response equipment and communications infrastructure to broader government applications, policymakers are increasingly prioritizing domestic battery output in an effort to strengthen industrial resilience.

That shift is creating a new demand driver for battery materials and accelerating investment across the value chain, particularly in North America and Europe, where governments are seeking to reduce dependence on China.

According to a 2023 report, a US soldier deployed for a 72 hour mission carries anywhere from 15 to 20 pounds of batteries, used to operate a variety of equipment, including radios, rifle scopes, night-vision goggles and GPS.

There are roughly 1.32 million active duty members in the US, which theoretically could require 19.8 million pounds of batteries. That does not include the batteries used in drones and other military applications.

Speaking with the Investing News Network (INN), Cormac O’Laoire, managing director of Electrios Consultants, said the conversation around batteries has changed dramatically over the past year, with governments placing greater emphasis on secure domestic supply chains. Previously, they were treated as low-priority commodities similar to household remote control batteries. However, they have recently taken on new life.

“Over the last 12 months, batteries have been classified as munitions, meaning ammunition,” he said.

“So batteries are right there next to bullets and missiles. And what does the army need? Munitions. They need a lot of it, but you usually can’t buy off your adversary,” the expert added.

O’Laoire went on to explain that the US Department of War has introduced programs alongside the National Defense Authorization Act to change how battery cells are sourced, explicitly banning procurement from China.

Unlike the EV industry, which uses terms like “foreign entity of concern,” the Department of War directly names China and prohibits sourcing cells or battery systems from the country between now and 2031.

Money is following the mandate. The Department of War’s Drone Dominance Program, a roughly US$1.1 billion initiative, aims to field more than 300,000 domestically produced attack drones by 2028 with no Chinese components.

O’Laoire calls it a “cash infusion” the battery sector badly needed. The pricing gap illustrates why — EV battery packs run around US$120 per kilowatt-hour, he noted, while comparable aerospace and defense-grade cells fetch roughly US$11,000 per kilowatt-hour. “Cost is secondary to mission success,” he said.

Those drones, along with car-sized unmanned aerial and marine vehicles, as well as the disposable first-person-view attack drones soldiers now fire, mostly run on nickel-manganese-cobalt (NMC) chemistry rather than the lighter, cheaper…