Integration and Penetration Opportunities of Alternative Energy, Fuels, and Technologies within Military Systems, Logistics, and Operations

摘要

Recent global events in oil-rich regions (e.g., Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Georgia, and Venezuela), international natural disasters (e.g., Indonesian tsunami and China earthquake), and domestic natural disasters (e.g., Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Ike) have amplified the sensitivity of domestic and international fuel markets to petroleum based fuels and products. In all cases, the responses have been characterized by higher cost of fuels, instability in supply, supply chain/infrastructure damage, and reduced product quality. Also, widespread market globalization in emerging markets such as China and India have led to stresses in supply-and-demand market forces. While these effects have been widely reported in the domestic consumer and commercial markets, the ramifications on Department of Defense (DoD) military systems, operations, and logistics have not been well-understood. In 2001 the Defense Science Board (DSB) task force report entitled More Capable Warfighting Through Reduced Fuel Burden identified a relationship between the amount of energy needed to support military operations and the overall net effectiveness of the deployed force, the total cost of producing a military capability, and force structure balance. In 2008, a second DSB task force examined the same topic in light of experience from Iraq and Afghanistan. They concurred with the 2001 observations and conclusions but added that, for scenarios involving contested lines of communications, risks to operational success increased and force protection demands further compromised overall operational effectiveness. The task force recommended that decisions made during the requirements development process be informed as to their consequences in terms of size of logistics organization, total costs, and effect on operational effectiveness based on the presence of the logistics organization inside the battlespace. The task force described this need as quantifying the consequences of options in the requiremen.