UK teams with McLaren Formula 1 racers with eye on electrifying fleet

LONDON — The U.K. Defence Ministry is partnering with the British motor-racing Formula 1 team McLaren to upgrade several defense projects, the ministry announced Saturday.

“This exciting partnership will see McLaren Racing bring their world-class expertise from the racetrack into a number of defence projects,” Defence Secretary Grant Shapps said in a news release. “By collaborating with industry we will continue to drive innovation through knowledge sharing, which will benefit Defence’s engineering and operations across the course of the partnership and beyond.”

The McLaren Racing team was established in 1963 and has won 20 Formula 1 world championships and 183 Formula 1 grands prix.

Under the arrangement, the motor-racing team will provide expertise gained from decades in elite-level motorsport and help the ministry on innovative defense projects, including electrifying armored vehicles through Project Lurcher.

To kick off the collaboration, McLaren Racing and the ministry showcased their respective vehicles — the all-electric off-road sports car NEOM McLaren Extreme E and the Project Lurcher armored vehicle — at BattleLab, a defense innovation hub in Dorset, England.

“This new partnership with the Ministry of Defence provides a great opportunity to stretch and apply our innovation and technological know-how and a high-performance culture with a view to improving operational efficiencies across a wide range of exciting projects,” Matt Dennington, the co-chief commercial officer for McLaren Racing, said in the release.

McLaren has a track record of developing scalable electric products, such as the 5G edge computing antenna for rail and integrated inverters. It has also launched vehicle models like the hybrid electric sports car McLaren Artura.

On the battlefield, electric vehicles provide more efficient fleets and reduce the need to resupply them with fuel, lessening the chance of putting humans in harm’s way.

The new multiyear partnership comes a year after the ministry awarded a one-year contract to the defense firm Babcock International to modify four in-service British Army Land Rovers from diesel to electric propulsion under Project Lurcher.

According to a 2022 Army report , the U.K. has a 15-year plan to make the majority of its land capabilities hybrid or fully electric by 2035. However, it’s unclear whether the service can go fully electric by its deadline, former chief of the General Staff for the British Army, Gen. Mark Carleton-Smith, told Defense News in 2021 .

“We’re, industrially, still some way away from completely living without carbon engines in our principal war-fighting equipment,” Carleton-Smith said while still in his role.

The partnership also seeks to advance high-tech engineering know-how, potentially drawing in a larger pool of candidates for military jobs in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math.

Thibault Spirlet was the United Kingdom correspondent for Defense News. Thibault previously covered the Russia-Ukraine and Israel-Hamas wars at Business Insider. He also has experience reporting on the European Union and U.K. politics.

伦敦——英国国防部周六宣布，将与英国一级方程式赛车队迈凯伦合作，升级多个国防项目。

“这项激动人心的合作将使迈凯伦车队将其世界一流的赛道技术应用于多个国防项目，”国防大臣格兰特·沙普斯在一份新闻稿中表示。“通过与业界合作，我们将继续通过知识共享推动创新，这将使国防部的工程和作战工作在合作期间及之后受益。”

迈凯伦车队成立于 1963 年，已获得 20 次一级方程式世界冠军和 183 次一级方程式大奖赛冠军。

根据该协议，这支赛车队将提供其在数十年的精英级赛车运动中积累的专业知识，并协助国防部开展创新国防项目，包括通过“猎犬计划”实现装甲车辆的电气化。

为了启动合作，迈凯伦赛车和国防部在位于英国多塞特郡的国防创新中心 BattleLab 上分别展示了他们的车辆——全电动越野跑车 NEOM McLaren Extreme E 和 Project Lurcher 装甲车。

迈凯伦赛车联合首席商务官马特·丹宁顿在新闻稿中表示：“与国防部的这项新合作关系为我们提供了一个绝佳的机会，让我们能够拓展和应用我们的创新和技术诀窍以及高绩效文化，以期在众多激动人心的项目中提高运营效率。”

迈凯伦在开发可扩展的电动产品方面拥有丰富的经验，例如用于铁路的5G边缘计算天线和集成逆变器。该公司还推出了诸如混合动力电动跑车迈凯伦Artura等车型。

在战场上，电动汽车可以提供更高效的车队，并减少燃料补给的需求，从而降低人员受伤的风险。

这项新的多年合作关系是在该部授予国防公司巴布科克国际公司一份为期一年的合同一年后达成的，该合同旨在根据“猎犬计划”将四辆现役的英国陆军路虎从柴油动力改装为电力动力。

根据英国陆军2022年的一份报告，英国制定了一项为期15年的计划，目标是在2035年前将其大部分陆地作战能力实现混合动力或完全电动化。然而，英国陆军前总参谋长马克·卡尔顿-史密斯将军在2021年接受《防务新闻》采访时表示，目前尚不清楚英国陆军能否在截止日期前实现全面电动化。

“从工业角度来看，我们距离在主要作战装备中完全摆脱碳发动机还有一段路要走，”卡尔顿-史密斯在任时说道。

该合作关系还旨在推进高科技工程技术，从而吸引更多人才加入军队，从事科学、技术、工程和数学领域的工作。

蒂博·斯皮尔莱特曾任《防务新闻》英国记者。此前，他曾在《商业内幕》报道过俄乌战争和以哈战争。此外，他还拥有报道欧盟和英国政治的经验。