I remember reading something about the CIA saying they controlled the Afghan mujahadeen (in the Soviet/Afghan war) by limiting the # of batteries available to them. The # of missiles/launchers were less important, the # of batteries to operate the launcher was the issue. I’m not knowledgeable enough to understand whether that was accurate, and whether that still applies to Stingers that pass from Ukrainians to terrorists per the article. Any thoughts?
The battery is called the BCU for Battery Coolent Unit, this is not an off the shelf item, so limitations on the BCU could help manage. If I remember correctly each stinger comes with 2 or 3 BCUs, that way if you don’t launch you can put in another BCU to try again.
However there can be workarounds, for example the Avenger Weapon System uses the exact same stinger as the man-launched, but does not use BCUs.
The battery pack is more than a battery.
It looks like a soup can and screws in. It contains (in addition the the battery) an argon gas cylinder (like an industrial BB gun CO2 cylinder) that supplied gas to cool the missile as it spins up for launch.