Military Fights the ‘Tyranny of Distance’ with Efficient Use of Operational Energy Written 21 August 2019
by Michele McDonald, AIAA Communications Manager
AIAA PROPULSION AND ENERGY FORUM, Indianapolis, August 21, 2019 — Efficient use of the U.S. military’s operational energy, which comprises everything from training, equipping, moving and sustaining military forces, can save lives.
About 30% of casualties in Afghanistan and Iraq happened while delivering fuel and water, Roberto “Bert” Guerrero, deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force for operational energy, told the audience of the “Optimizing the U.S. Air Force’s Operation Energy Use Through 21st Century Tools and Technology” session here.
“This idea of looking at operational energy a little bit closer than we had in the past was directly tied to what we were seeing with casualties in Afghanistan and Iraq because of long logistical supply chains that resulted in vulnerability to the soldiers that were having to deliver that fuel and water to an outpost,” he said.
“This is what keeps me up at night,” he explained, pointing to a global map with supply lines stretching across it on a slide titled “Operational Energy & the Tyranny of Distance.”
The Department of Defense is one of the largest consumers of energy in the world, noted session moderator Jim Free, senior vice president of aerospace systems at Peerless Technologies.
The challenge of operating a $5 billion fuel budget is “not just the cost of the fuel itself but of getting the fuel to where it needs to be so we can conduct our mission,” Guerrero said.
Whether it’s the pipelines in Europe not going east of the East Germany/West Germany border or the sheer size of Africa, these challenges complicate a mission’s success, he said.
Using operational energy more effectively includes upgrading from pencils to planning software, incentivizing new approaches, painstakingly gathering data from decades-old technology and applying some lessons from commercial airlines. Guerrero said that seemingly small changes such as using tanker planning software can result in a 3.6% savings, or a fuel reduction of 180,000 gallons a week.
Retrofitting older aircraft also helps, he said. Spending $2.5 million to add small fins to the C-17 Globemaster III to increase drag reduction results in a $10 million fuel savings, Guerrero explained, adding that computational fluid dynamics is being used to reduce aerodynamic drag on the B-52 Stratofortress.
Guerrero called on the aerospace community to bring ideas to the military to help optimize the military’s operational energy.