Military

Military Standard Generators

The next effort undertaken by the PM was to develop and establish the first true Standard Family of Generators for DoD -- what is now known as the Military Standard (MIL STD) family. Beginning development in the late 1960's, these new generators were developed and designed by the government, and over 90,000 were procured from industry from 1968 through the 1987. The new MIL STD Family further reduced the number of makes/models of generators to 37; they included both gasoline and diesel sets from 0.5 to 750kW.

This MIL STD Family was the workhorse of the Services throughout the 1970's and early 1990's, with distinguished service in Grenada, Panama, Somalia, Desert Storm, et al. Because of funding limitations, even today, virtually all the the Reserves and Guard Forces rely on these aged sets. The average age of the Army's MIL STD fleet is 25 years on the small sets (3kW and below) and 18 years for the 5-60kW sets -- in many cases older than the soldiers/airmen/marines operating them.

4,500 kW Electro Motive Division (EMD) plants

The 4,500 EMD Plants consist of three generator units each capable of producing 1,500 kW of power at 4,160 VAC at 60 hertz.

750kW Mil-Std Prime Power Generator(MEP 012A)

The prime power generator used in the USAF's Harvest Falcon/Eagle Bare Base and Army's 249th Engineer Bn Prime Power Support programs is the MEP-012A. The MEP-012A is a trailer mounted, diesel driven generator set, classified as 750kW, prime power (Type II), utility (Class 2A), Mode I (50/60 Hz) as defined in MIL-STD-1332.

The MEP-012A uses a liquid cooled, turbocharged, V12 diesel ( Cummins KTA-38) and a three phase, four wire, wye connected alternator ( Marathon 682FDR8419GH). Each MEP-012A weights approximately 25,000 pounds and consumes fuel at a rate of 55 gallons per hour at full power. The physical dimensions are as follows: Length=241 inches, Width=96 inches, Height=101 inches.