August
7, 2008: The U.S. Navy has all its ship crews hard at work on new
ways to save fuel. Five years ago, oil cost under $30 a barrel. A
year ago, it was under $70 a barrel. Now it's as high as $140 a
barrel. New ideas are suddenly welcome, and quickly implemented.
This
year, the navy will see its fuel costs to be up by over 40 percent
(to nearly $4 billion.) That's one reason the navy decided to
cancel five new $3.2 billion, 14,000 ton DDG-1000 destroyers, and
replace them with eight, $1.7 billion, 9,000 ton Burke class ships.
But
the navy sees more savings in simply being frugal while operating
ships. Equipment use has been scrutinized, and, not surprisingly, it
was discovered that a lot of stuff could be shut down when it wasn't
needed. This included some of the main power plants (most ships have
more than one main engine), but also the thousands of other
electrical and mechanical devices on a ship.
The
navy, as well as the air force, have been scrutinizing how many
aircraft they send into action, or use for training. Smart bombs have
made it possible to take care of ground support needs with fewer
aircraft, and now those needs are being scrutinized even more. The
stark reality is that the multiplicity of GPS guided weapons
(artillery shells and rockets), plus many types of missiles, means
that aircraft are often not needed as much. In fact, many times, the
ground troops want the fighters overhead to use their high resolution
targeting to look around for any hostile gunmen. The pilots are
usually happy to oblige, but this sort of thing is driving air force
and navy accountants nuts. The air force is pushing for more UAVs,
like Predator and Reaper, to be used. That's because a Reaper,
which can carry 500 pound JDAMs, burns about 200 pounds of fuel an
hour, while an F-16 (or F-15 or F-18) burns several times that per
minute. The smaller Predator, which can only carry a pair of 107
pound Hellfire missiles, burns less than 50 pounds of fuel an hour.
Suddenly, the air force is a lot more interested in using UAVs
instead of fighters. The navy has renewed interest in carrier based
UAVs.
The
navy is also pushing ahead more aggressively to automate ships and
reduce crew sizes. Maintaining people on ships burns a lot of fuel.
All the services are using "reach back" manning more frequently.
Reach back is nothing more than telecommuting for troops. The air
force has long done it for the people who operate their Predator and
Reaper UAVs, who are based in the United States. Only the maintenance
personnel go overseas with the UAVs. The navy does reach back with an
increasing number of administrative functions, which are done in the
states, with sailors on the ships communicating via satellite link.
