20-03-06
Tens of thousands of US military vehicles, ships and aircraft are guzzling
fuel every day around the world and with the bill rising the Pentagon is trying
harder to conserve.
The US military consumed 144.8 mm barrels of fuel in 2004, spending $ 6.7 bn,
according to the Defence Energy Support Centre (DESC). Last year, it consumed
only 128.3 mm barrels, but spent $ 8.8 bn, as the average price per barrel rose
by almost 50 % to more than $ 68.
For 2006, DESC estimates the military will need 130.6 mm barrels and pay more
than $ 10 bn for it, at a price of more than $ 77 per barrel.
As oil prices hit a record $ 70.85 per gallon last year and have hovered around
$ 60 ever since, the Pentagon realized the only way to soften the blow would be
to consume less.
Fears of shortages after Hurricane Katrina gave the issue new urgency,
prompting Deputy Secretary of Defence Gordon England to send a wide memo last
September asking all military departments, defence agencies and employees to
conserve fuel. Amid the measures England suggested were increased training on
combat simulators instead of actual war machines and shutting down engines
instead of idling.
Two months later, the Pentagon also ordered all defence facilities to cut their
energy consumption each year by 2 % and to increase their use of renewable
energy to 7.5 % of total demand by 2013 and 25 % by 2025. Even as the White
House repeatedly said the jury was still out on whether industrial emissions
caused global warming, the Pentagon ordered facilities to cut greenhouse gas
emissions by 30 % from 1990 levels by 2010.
The biggest gas guzzlers are heavy armoured vehicles like tanks and humvees
and aircraft like the massive B-52 bomber. They were designed decades ago, when
gas prices were not an issue. But they have remained a vital part of combat
missions.
A case in point is the Abrams tank, designed in 1979 for rapid assaults across
Europe against the Soviet Union. Its massive armour can survive vicious direct
hits and its turbine engine can propel it from zero to 20 miles per hour in
seven seconds. But it weighs 70 tons and consumes 56 gallons an hour at full
clip and 10 gallons an hour while idling.
Source: USNews & World Report