A Diesel Engine Company
with a Tactical Power Obsession
Proprietary Diesel Engines
Co-Developed Axial Flux Motors
Purpose-Built Electronics
BlueSky Mobile Power is an American diesel engine & hybrid power technology company.
The Maneuver Power Company.
Our Mission
Enable the Warfighter.
Support our Customers.
Own the Technology.
BlueSky Mobile Power is an American diesel engine and hybrid power technology company. We design, develop, and manufacture the propulsion and power generation systems that keep advanced tactical equipment running in the most demanding environments on earth.
Our core technology - the BMP-478 engine family and our co-developed axial flux motor - represents more than a decade of engineering investment across programs with IARPA, the Air Force, Marine Corps, and Army. Today, our systems are fielded on Stryker vehicles, proven at Army exercises, and deployed to operational environments.
The modern battlefield runs on electricity. Sensors, C5ISR, counter-UAS, electronic warfare, and the drones that define overmatch in peer conflict - none of them run on JP8. They run on electrons. The Army that can generate, store, and distribute electricity while moving with the formation holds a decisive advantage. The Army that cannot is tethered to static generator sets that broadcast its location and degrade the very systems it spent a decade modernizing.
BlueSky Mobile Power builds the engine at the center of that solution.
We don't just deliver power. We deliver Maneuver Power — organic, vehicle-mounted, on-the-move generation that moves with the formation, not behind it.
Hybrid-Auxiliary Power Unit (H-APU)
Why Maneuver Power Changes Everything
The Army's tactical power problem is no longer about fuel economy. It is about survivability.
Modern battlefield generators are static, loud, and hot. In a contested environment saturated with adversary ISR, a running generator broadcasts your position. It tethers your formation to a fixed point. And it cannot power C5ISR, counter-UAS, or autonomous systems while the formation moves.
The 5kW H-APU is the answer to that problem. It is compact enough to mount on a Stryker. It runs on JP8. It generates clean, stable power at any load without wet-stacking. And it moves with the formation — because it is part of the vehicle.
Maneuver Power. Not logistics power. Not FOB power. Formation power.
Built for the Formation You're In
The 5kW H-APU was designed around a core principle: the formation already has fuel and batteries. We bulit our interfaces to use what's there — not to create new logistics dependencies.
Maneuver Power. Not logistics power. Not FOB power. Formation power.
Fuel Flexibility
Quick-release fuel lines support connection to any organic fuel soure in the formation — jerry can, 55-gallon drum, or direct vehicle feed. JP8, F24, DF-1, DF-2. You don't need a dedicated fuel system. You need what the next vehicle over already has.
Battery Compatibility
Battery interfaces are designed to accept any battery system organic to the formation — not locked to a proprietary pack. If the formation has it, the H-APU can work with it.
NATO Electrical Interfaces
Electrical connections use NATO-standard ports for maximum interoperability across vehicle platforms, allied formations, and coalition operations. Plug in. No adapter kit required.
TMS-Compliant Power Reporting — Under Active Development Contract
BlueSky is under active development contract to integrate an onboard Tactical Microgrid Standard (TMS / MIL-STD-3071) compliant gateway — enabling real-time power reporting, load status, and energy management data into formation-level power networks as the Army's microgrid architecture matures.
The Heart of the System
The BMP-478 Engine Family
The BMP-478 is the world’s smallest automotive-production common rail diesel engine. Two cylinders. Electronic fuel injection. Multi-shot combustion capability. JP8 and F24 fuel ready. It’s not just small—it’s the foundation of an entire family of power systems built for defense and commercial applications.
BlueSky owns 100% of the IP: CAD assemblies, manufacturing drawings, PLM data, supplier quality records, assembly instructions, test data, automated test cells, and tooling. We are rehoming production to the United States with a domestic capacity of 30,000 engines per year.
Engine Heritage: An Old Soul with a New Heart
The Production-Proven Story behind the BMP-478
The BMP-478 is not a science project. It didn't come out of a lab, a SBIR white paper, or a startup's pitch deck. It is a production-proven, commerically deployed diesel engine with over 15 years of real-world service.
Full Right to Repair Isn’t Just a Slogan.
It's a promise.
When a foreign-sourced engine goes down in the field, the clock doesn’t just start on the repair — it starts on a phone call to a country that may not pick up. Parts on backorder from overseas. Technical documentation locked behind an OEM relationship. A supply chain you don’t control, serving a customer you aren’t prioritizing.
BlueSky Mobile Power was built on a different premise. We acquired the full intellectual property on the BMP-478 engine. We invested in domestic manufacturing in Lexington, North Carolina. We own the supply chain — not as a talking point, but as a deliberate strategic decision — because we believe the warfighter and the program manager have the right to fix, modify, and sustain their equipment without asking anyone’s permission.
Full right to repair means:
- Complete technical documentation — every schematic, every tolerance, every service interval — in American hands
- Domestic parts manufacturing — reduce foreign single points of failure in your sustainment chain
- Open architecture — our power electronics and engine systems are designed to be maintained by military technicians, not proprietary service contracts
- No OEM gatekeeping — you own the platform; you own the ability to keep it running
- Load-based maintenance intervals: 200-hour minimum, up to 500 hours. No valve adjustments, no drive belts
This isn’t a warranty pitch. It’s a worldview. The best defense technology is technology your own people can sustain. Anything less is a liability dressed up as a capability.
BlueSky Mobile Power. American IP. Your Right to Repair.
The BMP-478 Engine
A lightweight, fuel efficient, quiet, low vibration, and maneuver ready engine, substantially outperforming its competition in its power output and displacement class.
That phrase isn’t a marketing line. It’s an operational requirement. A formation that generates power only when stationary is a formation the enemy can find, fix, and strike. The BMP-478 was engineered to eliminate that vulnerability.
Integration (Optional)
- Cold starting down to -40C with Arctic Kit.
- SAE 5 flywheel housing option
- Remote oil filter option
- Oil cooler option
- Turbocharger for 19kW output (in development)
- Integration as an APU, generator, mini tracked vehicle, UTV, or pump engine.
Mission Benefits
- Twin balance shafts substantially reduces vibrations.
- Water cooling paired with water to oil heat exchanger allows for no derating up to 55C / 130F ambient temperature, and creates a compact, lightweight design.
- Hydraulic lifters require no valve adjustment
- Military Fuel Ready. JP8 and F24 fuel ready.
- Aluminum block and head reduces the weight by 75 lbs compared to Kubota Z482.
- Common rail fuel injection. Electronic fuel injection allows for lower aural detectability, lower fuel consumption, and increases variable speed performance. Multi-shot fuel injection reduces aural signature and vibrations.
BSFC
ISG Fuel Efficiency
Engineered Together. Optimized as One.
Axial Flux Electric Motor Co-Developed with Trust Automation
Most power companies buy a motor and adapt it. We co-developed ours with Trust Automation, precisely tuning it to the BMP-478 engine’s operating characteristics. The result is a motor that doesn’t just bolt onto our engine—it was born alongside it.
The twin-stator, single-rotor permanent magnet design delivers 15kW+ continuous power and better than 93% system efficiency across its full operating map—measured through both the integratedstarter-generator and 3-phase drive conversion, not just the motor in isolation. That number is real, repeatable, and verified
- 15kW+ continuous rated power
- Better than 93% system efficiency across the operating map (ISG + 3-phase drive)
- 100% water cooled; operates at 105°C+ water temperature at rated load
- Active rectification with advanced 3-phase drive
- IP65 sealed: dust-tight and protected against powerful water jets
- Pressure-equalized for altitude operations and air transport
- Dual-role: serves as integrated starter/generator, eliminating the need for a dedicated starter motor
- Configurable output: 28 VDC for traditional combat vehicles, 600 VDC for hybrid and autonomous platforms
Consistently low fuel consumption
Effortless Integration.
Custom Power Electronics by Trust Automation
Our power electronics aren’t adapted from another application—they’re designed and manufactured by Trust Automation specifically for the BMP-478 engine and axial flux motor combination. Full Digital Signal Processor (DSP) control with standard CANbus interface ensures precise, efficient operation and seamless integration into vehicle and fleet management architectures.
This is what makes the variable speed magic work: because the electronics aren’t dependent on a fixedengine speed, the system maintains a flat efficiency curve across the entire load range. That means consistently low fuel consumption whether you’re running 10% load or 100%—and zero wet-stacking, ever.
One platform. One supply chain. One training pipeline.
Three power classes that scale from squad-level C5ISR to vehicle-level hybrid drive.
- Electronic fuel injection with multi-shot combustion capability for lower noise and extended engine life
- Pressurized oil system for maneuvering capability at 15° inclination in any direction
- 5kW continuous without derating at 135°F ambient; up to 6.5kW in battle mode
- Variable speed operation eliminates wet-stacking and delivers up to 50% fuel savings at part loads
- Load-based maintenance intervals: 200-hour minimum, up to 500 hours. No valve adjustments, no drive belts
The Battlefield Doesn't Run at Full Power.
Neither Do We.
Variable-load hybrid power that adjusts with the fight — from quiet watch to full engagement — on JP8 the formation already carries.
Every drone, every C5ISR system, every counter-UAS sensor, every radio needs a battery. None of them have a recharge station waiting on the objective. The only resupply available is the one resource that is always in the formation: JP8. The H-APU converts that fuel into the electrons the mission consumes — directly, efficiently, and without stopping.
But combat doesn't run at full power all the time. And neither do we.
The fight surges and goes quiet. The power demand surges and goes quiet with it. A legacy generator running at fixed speed wastes fuel at low load, wet-stacks, and generates unnecessary acoustic and thermal signature whether the formation needs 500 watts or 5 kilowatts. It can't adapt. The H-APU can.
Variable-speed hybrid technology means the engine runs exactly as hard as the mission demands — nothing more. At 1kW load, the system runs lean and quiet, stretching a single 5-gallon jerry can to nearly 48 hours. At full 6kW load — peak fight, drones airborne, C5ISR fully active — that same jerry can delivers 8 hours of uninterrupted power. Everything between those endpoints scales proportionally, automatically, without an operator adjusting anything.
That is the real advantage: not just moving with the formation, but adjusting with it. Delivering lethality at full load when the fight is on, and preserving fuel and reducing signature when it's not. Survivability and lethality from the same system, at the same time.
Variable Load Runtime (5-Gallon JP8)
Quiet Watch
Load: 1kW
Formation monitoring, sensors passive, low-signature posture.
Active C5ISR
Load: 3kW
Comms active, drone recharge cycling, command post operating.
Full Engagement
Load: 4.5kW
Counter-UAS active, EW systems on, multiple drone sorties.
Peak Flight
Load: 6 kW
All systems at max draw — every platform running, every sensor active.
Why Hybrid Is the Only Answer
Battery-only systems run out and have no organic resupply on the battlefield. Pure diesel systems are fuel-hungry at idle, loud when the formation needs quiet, and incapable of adapting to variable demand. Hybrid is the only architecture that does all three things at once: generates power from the fuel already in the formation, stores and buffers that power in whatever batteries the formation carries, and scales output precisely to what the mission demands at any given moment.
The H-APU is not a generator with a battery attached. It is a variable-output power conversion system that moves with the formation, adjusts with the fight, and delivers lethality and survivability simultaneously — at the load the mission needs, for as long as the fuel lasts.
Engine Heritage
An Old Soul with a New Heart
The BMP-478 is not a science project. It didn’t come out of a lab, a SBIR white paper, or a startup’s pitch deck. It is a production-proven, commercially deployed diesel engine with over 15 years of real-worldservice.
The Production Proven Story Behind the BMP-478
The engine was originally developed by a premier European engine manufacturer as a 478cc, 2-cylinder, liquid-cooled common rail diesel—purpose-built for the micro-vehicle and city car market. It powered brands across Europe in daily-use vehicles: stop-and-go urban traffic, cold starts in Scandinavia, summer heat in southern Italy, year after year. Tens of thousands were produced on an automated assembly line with full quality systems.
European Heritage
The European micro-car market demanded an engine that was impossibly light, whisper-quiet, andbulletproof reliable. That’s why the BMP-478 was built with:
- All-aluminum block — critical weight savings that no other engine in this class offers. The microcar market wouldn’t tolerate cast iron.
- Balance shafts — for smooth, low-vibration operation that no competitor in the military powerspace has. This is a feature you find in premium automotive engines, not tactical gensets.
- Common rail electronic fuel injection — from the factory, not bolted on as an afterthought. Multi-shot combustion capability for lower noise and extended engine life.
- Pressurized oil system — enabling reliable operation at angles, a by product of the automotive design requirements.
This engine earned its reputation not in a laboratory, but on the streets of Europe—in the unforgiving cycle of real-world commercial production: factory floors, quality gates, warranty claims, and millions of operating hours.
Coming to America: Lexington, NC
When BlueSky acquired the full IP and production line during development of the H-APU for the U.S. Army, we didn’t get a prototype or a concept. We got a seasoned, world-class engine with a proven production history, established supplier relationships, and a mature manufacturing process.
We brought it to Lexington, North Carolina—in the heart of NASCAR country, Davidson County, where stock car racing has been part of the culture since NASCAR’s inaugural 1948 season. The Piedmont Triad region is home to Richard Childress Racing and dozens of motorsport engineering firms. The talent pool here doesn’t just know engines—they live and breathe them.
BlueSky’s new production facility at 301 Welcome Center Boulevard, Lexington, NC is a 67,000+ square foot manufacturing facility with a rich history of its own—it was built for and previously used by the motorsport industry to build race cars for NASCAR. The same facility that once prepared cars for the track will now build engines and hybrid power systems for the warfighter and industrial-commercial customers.
It was here, surrounded by race engineers who understand turbocharging, combustion dynamics, and extracting maximum performance from small displacement engines, that the BMP-478 got its turbo variant. NASCAR engineers didn’t just bolt on a turbocharger—they gave this engine a new life and a new mission. The BMP-478T (10kW) and BMP-478T+ (15kW) variants carry the DNA of 15 years of European production reliability, augmented by the performance engineering culture of American motorsport.
What We Changed vs. What Was Already World-Class
What the Engine Powers
The BMP-478 engine family powers a range of hybrid systems designed for the most demandingenvironments. Our primary product line is a family of Hybrid Auxiliary Power Units (H-APUs) engineered for C5ISR systems on ground vehicles—the systems that demand the smallest, lightest,most reliable power solutions in the military inventory.
Maneuver Power Applications
The 5kW H-APU is validated across formations and environments where organic, vehicle-mounted power is the difference between a capable warfighter and a blind one.
Hybrid Auxiliary Power Units (H-APUs) for mounted C5ISR: Stryker, MASCP, and tactical vehicle integration
- Dismounted tactical gensets for mobile command posts, TOCs, and expeditionary operations
- Integrated power and elevation solutions with BlueSky Mast systems
- Silent watch power with auto start-stop and battery integration
- Drone recharge and sUAS power support — on-the-move charging for unmanned systems organic to the formation
- Counter-UAS and EW system power — sustained high-draw loads for sensors and active defeat systems without a dedicated generator trailer
Commercial Applications
- Stationary and mobile generators
- Light towers
- Pleasure and commercial boat APUs
- UTV propulsion engines
The Battlefield Electricity Problem
Why Maneuver Power Is the Army's Next Critical Capability Gap
1,200 lbs
Compared to 48 lbs during Desert Storm. Power demand is structural - and accelerating.
4 of 42
An 82nd Airborne Regiment could sustain 4 out of 42 drones at NTC - not due to platform or operator limits, but because of battery and organic power generation gaps. (82nd ABN, Fort Irwin, Sept. 2025)
No Owner
The Army has no single program of record, no funded architecture, and no general officer accountable for battlefield electricity at the formation level. The problem is documented. The gap is real.
Every Army modernization priority — counter-UAS, directed energy, autonomous systems, AI-enabled command and control — runs on electricity. Static generators create targetable signatuers and tether formations to fixed positions. The force that can generate, store, and distribute power while moving with the maneuver formation holds a decisive advantage.
That capability has a name: Maneuver Power. And it starts with a 5kW diesel hybrid APU that mounts to the vehicle, runs on JP8, and moves when the formation moves.
"... electricity has become the most critical enabling commodity in ground combat. Without it, the Army cannot sense, shoot, communicate, compute, or defend."
Electricity as Warfighting Imperative: The Unowned Problem Defining the Next Fight.
White Paper by John Cavedo, Colonel, US ARMY (Retired); Principal 360 Enterprises LLC; February 2026
Facilities
- Diesel Engine Manufacturing / Assembly: Mobile Power, Lexington, NC
- CNC & Additive Manufacturing - Largo, FL
- Strategic Development Partner: Trust Automation, San Luis Obispo, CA
Active Military Customers
The 5kW H-APU has been validated in more than 11 Army field exercises and events since mid-2024 — from Arctic Kit cold-weather operations to sustained high-tempo power generation in desert environments. It has been tested where the Army trains to fight.
- Army DEVCOM C5ISR
- Office of the Under Secretary of Defense (OUSD)
- 10th Mountain Division
- 25th Infantry Division (multiple exercises; currently deployed to southern border)
- Program Executive Office Ground Combat Systems (PEO GCS)