Military Looks to Synthetics, Conservation to Cut Fuel Bills

[NYVet]

http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=50131


WASHINGTON, June 6, 2008 – With fuel prices soaring and no apparent end in sight, the Defense Department is feeling the pinch in its pocketbook and is looking for ways to save through conservation and alternative fuels programs.

The Defense Department is “probably the largest single user of petroleum products in the world,” so rising energy costs are a major concern, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates told a questioner at the Asia Security Summit in Singapore earlier this week.

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Spiraling fuel costs in 2008 and their effect in fiscal 2009, which begins Oct. 1, have forced department officials to return to Congress for additional funding to cover the shortfall. But the department is increasingly looking to other options, Gates told his Asian counterparts during the three-day security conference, citing efforts ranging from synthetic fuels initiatives to fuel reclaiming aimed at curbing fuel demand as well as costs.

<snip>

Meanwhile, engineers at Arnold Engineering Development Center in Tennessee wrapped up alternative fuel testing on the first fighter jet engine in May. The test used a synthetic blend in the engine for the F-15 Eagle and F-16 Fighting Falcon jets.

“The goal is to have every aircraft using synthetic fuel blends by 2011," Air Force Maj. Don Rhymer, of the Air Force Alternative Fuels Certification Office, told the Air Force News Agency. “By 2016, we hope at least 50 percent of this fuel will be produced domestically.”

While experimenting with synthetic fuels, the Defense Department is exploring other fuel-saving options. “We are looking at ways to recapture used petroleum products and refine then, and we are looking at various conservation measures,” Gates said at the Asia Security Summit.

Gates described some of the recovery efforts he witnessed during a May 1 visit to Red River Army Depot, Texas, during testimony later that month before the Senate Appropriations Committee.

The depot contracts with a private company that retrieves gasoline, oil and other fluids in the Humvees, Stryker armored vehicles, tanks and other vehicles brought to the depot for maintenance, Gates told the senators. The company then refines and sells the fluids, with Red River Army Depot getting a share of the profits.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

1. $500,000,000,000.00 ain't enough.

:cry:

[cliss]

5. How true.

Whatever the budget is, they will spend it.

[DS1]

2. Stop making tanks that require jet engines to run, for a start

Stop throwing away so much food off ship when the servings have left-overs. Stop requiring that AAV engines should be run for an hour at half-throttle while some jarhead (formerly, me) is standing on the brake just to keep the oils moving. The oils will be fine.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

3. Have I mentioned Star Wars yet?

The V-22 Osprey?

The UH-72A?

[DS1]

4. Ugh, yes, V-22

My brother was almost lined up to be killed on one of those things.