July 3,
2008: The U.S. Department of Defense
consumes about 110 million barrels of oil a year (about two percent of all U.S.
oil use). At current prices, that's over
$15 billion a year just for fuel. About 8 percent of that goes for ships,
giving the U.S. Navy a big incentive to find ways to move the ships using less
fuel. Lots of ideas for that have been developed over the years, but there was
little financial, or command, incentive to implement. Now there is, and the
navy has managed to come up with ways to save about 12 percent on their fuel
bills.
Two
measures accounted for most of the savings. First, there was a program to
simply tweak ship power systems to reduce fuel use, without getting in the way
of running the ship. This has been a pet peeve of many sailors, and navy
critics, for a long time. That's because it was noticed how the navy was
falling behind commercial shipbuilding in areas like automation and more
efficient operation in general. Navy crews were seen as too large, and not
always making the most efficient use of their time. As is often the case, a
serious shortage (of money to pay for fuel) has changed attitudes. Five years
ago, oil cost under $30 a barrel. A year ago, it was under $70 a barrel. Now
it's $140 a barrel. New ideas are suddenly welcome,
The second
initiative is to make the ships more hydrodynamic (moving through the water
more easily.) This includes anti-fouling coating for the hull, stern flaps, and
other tweaks. Future initiatives involve
low-power light fixtures, and lower power equipment in general, as well as
sensors to shut off equipment when not needed. Plus anything else smart sailors
can come up with.
A more
long distance solution is to equip more ships with nuclear power. With oil
headed to $200 a barrel, and over half a century of experience with this
technology (and an exemplary safety record), this is one way to cut a lot of
fuel cost. That won't help the fuel
costs for aircraft (73 percent of all military oil consumption), or ground
vehicles (15 percent), but every little bit helps.