The 2590 battery (more specifically, the BB-2590 battery) is a U.S. Military designation used to define the design requirements a battery must have in order to properly power specific military equipment. These requirements are captured in U.S. Military Performance Specification 32052(CR). That specification (abbreviated MIL-PRF-32052) is a generic specification for all rechargeable batteries designed to power portable/wearable radio equipment and comes with associated specification sheets for each of the various types of batteries that fall under its scope.
The BB-2590 is specifically defined in the specification sheet MIL-PRF-32052/1(CR), as well as, the BB-390 and BB-590 batteries. The designation can be broken down into parts; the “BB” prefix means the battery is rechargeable and the “2590” suffix means the battery is lithium ion chemistry and conforms to the XX90 pack size and corresponding dimensions.
All Ultralife UBI-2590 batteries are designed to meet the requirements of MIL-PRF-32052/1(CR). While the standard dictates a minimum performance capability, there is no maximum limitation. Therefore Ultralife prides itself on its ability to exceed those specifications whenever it can. This is where it is not safe to assume that every BB-2590 is the same across manufacturers. Recently this military specification has been superseded by another one, MIL-PRF-32383/3(CR), increasing the performance requirements of these batteries even more.
Ultralife has recently released the UBBL10-01 which is designed to meet those new requirements, and is anticipating the same upgrade to be released for all of the UBI-2590 products soon.
