How Acumentrics Ensures Uninterrupted Power at the Tactical Edge

At the tactical edge, a power interruption is never just an inconvenience. If a ground control station loses backup power at the wrong moment, an operator can lose control of a UAV. If a C4ISR system goes dark mid-mission, that means data loss, communication loss, or worse.

Acumentrics has spent more than three decades designing systems that prevent power interruptions. In the first episode of "A Day in the Life at Acumentrics," the team goes inside its Walpole, Massachusetts facility to show what it actually takes to build power systems that can't afford to fail.

Power Built for the Worst Day, Not the Best One

Acumentrics designs rugged, sub-10-kilowatt uninterruptible power supplies that combine power conversion, conditioning, distribution, and energy storage into a single, mobile, lightweight, dense unit. Every unit is built to MIL SPEC, for the defense branches (Army, Air Force, Marine Corps, Navy) that need the latest technology suited up and ready for battlefield service, not just the data center.

Most of the time, the power source in the field is a gasoline generator, which is far from the clean, stable power sensitive electronics need. As one Acumentrics team member explains, "What we do is we condition that power and we clean it up... so what you get outside of our unit (the output) is the cleanest power signature you would want for your sensitive electronics."

That clean signal matters because of what's riding on it: C4ISR systems (command, control, computers, communications, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance) depend on power that doesn't blink. Without a backup that kicks on instantaneously, the team notes, "there could be a loss in data, loss [of] communication," and in ground control station applications, "you could lose control of your UAV," posing real safety consequences for people on the ground.

Designed for Conditions the Battlefield Actually Creates

Every Acumentrics unit has to assume it will be dropped, thrown, frozen, baked, and shaken; because in the field, it will be. "Our system could go anywhere from freezing cold to the desert," one engineer says, and it has to be designed "to withstand conditions that would be found in a battlefield environment related to high shock, vibration, temperature, (and) humidity."

That standard shows up in the product line: everything Acumentrics makes is MIL-STD certified, which the team describes as "bridging technology." Meeting this standard enables commercially available electronics to hit data-center-level performance at the tactical edge, where the mission actually happens.

That bridging role has only gotten more important. According to the team, the operating environment has shifted fast: electronic warfare, drone proliferation, and AI processing at the tactical edge are generating and moving more data than these systems were originally built to handle. And this operating environment and data need power that's available 24/7 and up to the challenge.

Engineering With the End User in Mind

Acumentrics positions its differentiation less around any single spec and more around responsiveness. "The biggest thing that we add to the value is we do customization to their needs, and we have the support and the technical resources all in one location," one team member says. Rather than pushing a fixed catalogue item, or off-the-shelf homogeneity, engineers and sales staff work directly with customers to adapt designs to meet unique situations and circumstances in the field.

That customer focus is personal for at least one member of the team, a veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan and has used this category of equipment. In their words: "People have bet their lives on it... I understand and can appreciate the value that a rugged-by-design product such as Acumentrics brings in terms of its survivability. That not only ensures mission success, but it also enhances the probability that our soldiers will return home safely."

It's a reminder of who the "customer" really is. As one team member puts it plainly: "The customer is the soldier. The sailor. At the end of the day, he's going to use this equipment."

Watch the Full Story

Watch "A Day in the Life at Acumentrics – Episode 1" in full to see it firsthand and get in touch if you're evaluating rugged power for a mission-critical application.