Bio Fleet: The Navy's pursuit of an ambitious alternative energy program
Editor's note: This article was published in the January issue of Government Executive magazine .
A decade of war in Afghanistan and Iraq has taught the U.S. military a key lesson: It can't keep fighting like it is. It takes too much energy -- literally.
Pentagon officials estimate that U.S. forces burn more than 5 billion gallons of fuel annually in military operations. That's more than 570,000 gallons an hour. The war in Afghanistan alone consumes about 1.3 million gallons of fuel a day. Helicopters gulp hundreds of gallons of fuel per hour and Humvees get less than 10 miles per gallon. On average, ground troops require 22 gallons of fuel per warfighter per day, according to Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. That's nearly twice the fuel consumption rate during the Vietnam War, and 22 times the rate during World War II.
To keep fuel flowing to the troops, nearly 80 percent of the military's supply convoys in Afghanistan are devoted to delivering fuel. Not surprisingly, the convoys make an attractive target for insurgents -- one in 50 experiences a fatality or serious injury.