Congress has mandated the military cut oil consumption by 50 percent, the Pentagon sees alternative energy production to be a crucial strategic effort.
http://www.element14.com/community/docs/DOC-38949
Military Oil Consumption To Be Cut 50%
Military Oil Consumption To Be Cut 50%
Engineering is the art of making what you want from what you can get at a profit.
The difficulty is that when oil prices tank the military will be left with a bunch of high priced AE that will probably have to be replaced with high priced AE.Skipjack wrote:Good for them :)
Hopefully that means that the DOD will invest more in fusion and other nuclear energy systems.
OTOH fusion might do the job. If it can be made to work.
Engineering is the art of making what you want from what you can get at a profit.
The root of the eveil here is that oil reduction includes the option to use alternate green fuels. These fuels are ridiculous in price compared to oil based ones. The military is more and more being bled dry on mobility and sustainment funds to pay for these "effective" technologies that are not yet mature enough in lifecycle (especially when compared to alternatives) to support cost effective aquisition.
When have oil prices ever lowered (looked at from a long term perspective)?The difficulty is that when oil prices tank the military will be left with a bunch of high priced AE that will probably have to be replaced with high priced AE.
On the scale of a decade, gas prices here have probably more than doubled...
So I think that if you plan ahead for a long time, it makes sense. Does not make sense in the short term though.
Generally, I would invest more into technology for a switch later, than making a switch now with technology that will be outdated soon.