By British racing legend Jenson Button praises armed forces for work in 2021
2009 Formula One World Champion Jenson Button has praised the Armed Forces for their work during the year with the vaccine rollout and a push for sustainability.
Jenson Button MBE said: “Happy New Year to all the service personnel around the world and especially the ones that are helping out with the booster jab”.
More than 750 Armed Forces personnel have been drafted in to help administer booster vaccine shots to the public in December.
Armed Forces have been helping the fight against Covid since the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020, under Operation Rescript.
Button is now a team owner in the all-electric rally series Extreme E, the series promotes electric vehicles and the British Army have already pledged £10 million in the sector.
Speaking at the final round of the championship in Devon, Button – owner and driver of the JBXE team – said: “Part of the Extreme E focus is to promote electric vehicles and clean technology solutions whilst highlighting climate change issues in the UK and around the globe.
“As the event helps highlight the importance of electrification and sustainability, the British Army also has an ambitious programme to introduce hybrid electric drive into its fleet of vehicles.
“The Army has already invested £10 million in this sector, developing experimental hybrid-electric drive vehicles in a bid to create a more sustainable military operation.”
Notable names also in the series are other F1 world champions like Sir Lewis Hamilton, owner of the X44 team and 2016 champion Nico Rosberg, owner of the Rosberg X Racing team.
Colonel Simon Ridgway OBE, Assistant Head Plans, Ground Manoeuvre Capability said: “We have fitted hybrid-electric technology to a number of vehicles including the Jackal, Foxhound and MAN SV platforms which are currently in-service so we can understand the benefits, the opportunities, risks, and threats of this technology and how it can make us operate better and differently in the future.
“We are also looking at where other opportunities lie, for example, through sustainable fuels or synthetic fuels and how that might reduce our consumption of fossil fuels going forward.
“This has given us an exciting opportunity to see what is happening with the Extreme E series and see what that could mean for us as we look to apply electrification technology to the British Army.”
The Ministry of Defence announced in August an £8 billion initiative called Project Allenby Connaught which includes making all non-combative vehicles electric by 2030.
(image credit: Engyles)
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