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July 26, 2012 |  | By Monish Gulati | ||
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The US Department of Defence (DoD) is the single largest consumer of fuel in the world, spending about $15 billion last year on fuel for tanks, ships, aircraft and other operations. In Afghanistan, the US military uses more than 50 million gallons of fuel each month. Experience in Iraq and Afghanistan and the evaluation of emerging global threats have lead DoD to focus on energy efficiency and new/alternate sources of energy within its energy security framework. There is now emphasis on reducing battlefield fuel demand and ensuring reliable, renewable energy supplies for both, combat and support operations. DoD’s major energy challenges include the high risk transportation of liquid fuels to and on the battlefield, the impact of fuel dependence (and the tenuous nature of its supply linkages) on operational effectiveness and the growing oil price volatility. Oil price volatility and DoD? Well yes, it is the new furrow of worry on the military forehead. A $1 rise in the price of a barrel of petroleum sustained over a year increases US DoD's fuel costs by $130 million and the barrel price of oil has risen $72 dollars since 2001. In 2011, the Pentagon paid $148 per barrel for oil, a 26 percent increase in cost from the previous year. To cater for this unplanned debit, the DoD had to reallocate $3.6 billion in its annual budget at the cost of other activities. Consequently, in this ‘era of fiscal duress’ DoD is looking at ways to transform the manner in which it consumes energy in military operations.
Key thoughts on the issue include production and local sourcing (including in overseas theatres) of alternative fuels and renewable energy sources to enhance the security of energy supplies, shield DoD installations from commercial (grid) power outages and leverage new energy technologies to serve as a buffer against ‘oil price shocks’. Resultant major thrust areas have been a) developing of more efficient vehicles to reduce battlefield fuel demand, b) deploying energy efficient and renewable energy technologies for habitat/fixed assets at bases and lastly harnessing advanced biofuels as an alternative to petroleum fuels.
Very simply, biofuels are liquid fuels derived directly from biomass and can be used as transportation fuel. The two most common types of biofuels in use today are ethanol and biodiesel. Besides being biomass derived the next major savings that biofuels provide is when they do not require special infrastructure and use the existing storage and dispensing infrastructure of petroleum fuels; such biofuels are called drop-in biofuels. The energy security initiative of US DoD drew support from the US President’s Blueprint for a Secure Energy Future of March 2011, which on the issue of developing advanced alternative fuels sought to task the Departments of Navy, Energy and Agriculture to partner with private industry to accelerate the commercialization of drop-in biofuels for military and commercial use.
In accordance with the ‘Blueprint’, DoD announced an advanced drop-in biofuel production project with the aim to establish commercial-scale bio-refineries in different regions of the U.S. to produce jet and naval biofuels from diverse feedstocks (corn, algae) via different processes. The US Navy, in December 2011, agreed to spend $12 million on 450,000 gallons of advanced biofuels, which can be blended with petroleum in a 50:50 mixture and used in existing engines without any modifications to them. The Navy and Air Force are planning to use advanced biofuels for 50 per cent of their fuel consumption by the end of this decade.
President Obama followed his energy road map with the State of the Union declaration on 25 January 2012, asking US Navy to develop 1 Gigawatt (GW) of renewable energy on its installations by 2020. The US Air Force has the goal of obtaining 1 GW by 2016 and the Army 1 GW by 2025 to support the broader DoD goal to meet 25 percent of its energy needs with renewable energy by 2025.
At the operational level, besides the issue of ensuring security of fuel convoys in rear areas, the US in Afghanistan found that fuel, costing $3 at the pump, when convoyed up through Pakistan or down through Russia, came at a "fully burdened cost” of $400 a gallon. Consequently, troops running diesel generators at forward operating bases in Afghanistan for lighting and charging were using some of the most expensive fuel in the world. This is an aspect Indian Military is familiar with by virtue of our experience at the Siachen glacier and other air maintained posts.
In today’s logistics paradigm the military treats energy as a commodity that will be readily available regardless of costs; strategic, operational or tactical. In a world of shrinking resources this paradigm is changing and energy costs are now being felt, and they are beginning to hurt not only in fiscal terms but also in the geostrategic consequences of sourcing it. As electronics find their way to infantry sections and small teams, high energy laser beams become associated with Air Defence and radio link becomes synonymous with data link, getting ‘lean and mean’ would translate as being energy efficient. Adopting alternate and renewable energy for military operations is a reality and the Indian Defence establishment must prepare for it sooner rather than later.
Monish Gulati is a security analyst based in New Delhi
Views expressed are personal
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Monish Gulati |
