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While I would expect the military to be concerned about its fuel supplies, they must surely know that in time of national crisis their fuel requirements would automatically take priority over civilian use. So, regardless of how tight the supply situation got, no one in the military would be left running on empty. That is a certainty.
There must be some other reason. Surely, they wouldn't be doing this without the approval and encouragement from Rumsfeld, et al. Does he (they) have a less than objective interest in promoting coal-to-liquid? Such as a financial stake in some of these ventures?
Or, perhaps there is a less cynical explanation. Maybe some of the top brass feel that the Bush Regime isn't taking the oil situation seriously enough and are using the subject of military fuel supply merely as a vehicle to help bring the oil supply issue to the forefront. Plausible?
I really don't quite know what to make of it.
If you can provide a link to this specific assertion, I'll try to tell you what I make of it.
The reference to US military interest in coal to liquids came originally from the Associated Press. Being ex military, and hearing canned party lines over and over, I now believe in reading all sources of info. Therefore I just looked at AlJazeera (a pretty good, interesting news source for a lot of things we never see here in our MSM) and found the story on US military interest in coal to oil under AlJazeera Economy News
One other random idea is that by playing the coal card publicly we send a signal to oil producers that we might not need them as much as they think we do.
Or that other consumers (China?) need not think we depend on the same overseas oil sources?
But it does seem to indicate that the peak oil meme is rolling along. Being a moderate, that means I have to second guess myself about how much is a "mania" and how much is based on fundamentals.
- Awareness of PO.
- Awareness of PO impact on UK and Indonesia such that the public questions the past export and depletion of scarce resources. Some Brazilian observors have called the export of petroluem an act of treason.
- Awareness of Mr Chavez' initiatives which both curb US influence and drive Venzuelan growth to 9%.
- Awareness of greater than failure in Iraq. Not only has the US not met its goals of energy security in a "democratic" vassal state, it has resulted in precisely the opposite. It has greatly worsened the US security position rather than enhanced it.
- Awareness that the Iraq initiative has greatly impaired America's global standing with all of its prior allies and friends. A nation which espouses a doctrine of pre-emption cannot expect to have friends.
- Awareness of the fact that China is willing to pay inflated prices for oil assets in recognition that the US dollar is not a long term robust store of value. Better spend it quick!
- Awareness that the physical scarity of energy will be greatly compounded by the political and social forces outlined above, all of which are suggestive of a global market failure.
- Awareness of the compounding of the above when the value of the American peso drops to zero, when the required intellectual capital is coming out of Chinese and Indian academies, and all leading edge manufacturing facilities are located outside of the USA.
Be on the lookout for DARPA funding of steam powered F-22s and pedal retrofit kits for the M1A1.With the Europeans leading, the USA military is now looking at renewable energy sources (they have been mandated to come up with 2% of energy in the near future). This includes PV and wind at military bases, and hybrid military equipment.
Britain jointly with Sweden have been looking at a hybrid combat vehicle but have not had much success I think because of the weight issue.
Heck, it is smart thinking and good insurance.
I have not heard any bad rumours about the prototypes, can you elaborate? The biggest gain is if I have understood it right to not have too design the wehicle around a mechanical drivetrain. Instead it has two smaller diesel engines with generators, accumulators, power electronics and individual electrical engines for each wheel or track sprocket.
But the Swedish requirement is for a shorter 6 wheeled/tracked wehicle and the Brittish a longer 8 wheeled one with a larger payload.
http://www.baesystems.se/Hagglunds/default.asp and then "New Projects"
Interesting article at Defense Industry Daily about the things the military is doing to prepare for peak oil.
Check out this solar parking lot at a Navy facility:
http://www.defense-update.com/features/du-3-05/feature-HED-afv.htm
Good post.
It is my understanding that this program has some issues, but I do not know the details.
Also go to http://www.defenseindustrydaily.com/2006/01/bae-receives-2-fres-vehicle-rd-contracts-from-uk/index.p hp
In September 2005, DID offered in-depth coverage of Britain's transformational FRES armored vehicle program. That article has been updated in light of latest release from BAE Systems. They have been awarded contracts by the UK Ministry of Defence for a Future Rapid Effect System (FRES) Chassis Concept Technology Demonstrator Programme (TDP) related to hybrid engines and based on BAE Hagglunds advanced SEP vehicle, plus a FRES Gap Crossing TDP for combat bridge-laying.
These acquisitions are part of the FRES Integrated Technology Acquisition Programme (ITAP), which is focused on reducing risk around the latest technologies and their integration into FRES. This program is intended to provide the British Army with a family of medium-weight, network-enabled, air-deployable armored vehicles to meet up to 16 roles. FRES is intended to be the central pillar of a capable and highly deployable medium force that will be able to project power rapidly world-wide, complementing the UK's existing heavy and light forces. In this respect, it fills a somewhat similar niche to the USA's Stryker vehicle family, and to the Phase 3 Land Vehicle segment of the USA's $120+ billion Future Combat Systems experiment.
SEP: Modular
(click for descriptions)
The BAE Systems Chassis Concept TDP will build on work done on the successful Swedish SEP program. SEP is a family of modular vehicles, utilizing emerging technologies like hybrid drives and allowing different role modules to be configured with either a wheeled or tracked chassis. The purpose of the TDP is to examine the ability of the electric drive system developed for SEP to meet the requirements of some or all of the envisaged FRES roles.
The BAE Systems Chassis TDP effort will be led from facilities in the UK in close co-operation with BAE Systems colleagues in Sweden, and will be focused primarily on reducing risk to allow a successful transition to the next phase. Note that per our in-depth FRES coverage, the General Dynamics' Advanced Hybrid Electric Drive (AHED) 8×8 vehicle is being used in a similar Chassis Concept TDP.
The BAE Systems Gap Crossing approach is based upon the company's bridging technology and light bridging concepts. With additional support from semi-private British R&D specialists QinetiQ, the TDP will focus on a new light-weight assault bridge based on 2 designs: a stretched version of current technology, and a new design using hybrid materials. Both designs aim to provide better bridge packaging for air transportability, plus fast under-armour deployment, recovery and re-deployment.
BAE Systems is currently the leading provider of equipment and support to the British Army, and is responsible for over 95% of all the armored vehicles currently in service there. They will work closely with the FRES Integrated Project Team and with Atkins, the FRES Systems House (overall program manager and integrator).
In its ancillary comments to editors attached to its corporate release, BAE noted that the awards support the aims that UK MoD has expressed in its recently-published Defence Industrial Strategy (DIS) to see BAE Systems Land Systems evolve its business "to bring advanced land systems' technologies, skills and processes into the UK." The firm also sees this contract as:
"...a step along the way of meeting BAE Systems' aspiration to take the leading role in the FRES programme. The company is evolving its land systems business in partnership with the MoD, to ensure it is in the strongest possible position to achieve this. "
Statements included:
"The proved domestic reserve lifetime for natural gas at current consumption rates is about 8.4 yrs. The proved world reserve lifetime for natural gas is about 40 years, but will follow a traditional rise to a peak and then a rapid decline. Domestic oil production peaked in 1970 and continues to decline. Proved domestic reserve lifetime for oil is about 3.4 yrs. World oil production is at or near its peak and current world demand exceeds the supply. Saudi Arabia is considered the bellwether nation for oil production and has not increased production since April 2003. After peak production, supply no longer meets demand, prices and competition increase. World proved reserve lifetime for oil is about 41 years, most of this at a declining availability."
Another area discussed in the report is the use of coal. 90% of coal use today is for electricity generation. Current lifetime = 255 year supply at current use levels. If use is increased 1.4% per year that lifetime drops to 109 years. [2% use increase reduces lifetime to 85 years.] If the military starts gasifying coal for motor fuel, or if it gasified for domestic use, the decrease in lifetime could be very much more significant. Roscoe Bartlett stated in his interview with CNN this week that gasification and liguifaction of coal for motor fuel will reduce coal's lifetime by roughly another 50 years.
The smokin' gun folks. The Military had this information last September, long before TSOTU.
This week in DefenseNews.com it was announced that the "Pentagon will shortly unveil a military-wide conservation plan." Rumsfeld has initiated a huge program for energy efficiency, conservation, and alternative fuel use across the entire Defense Department. "A Dec. 14 memo by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, called on the Pentagon to create a "centralized point in the Department" to work on energy conservation." Here is an the article about that.