Pentagon needs accurate accounting of fuel: Military services urged to set up measurement tools for energy consumption.

• Author: Book, Elizabeth G.
• Position: Statistical Data Included

Until the Defense Department begins measuring the true cost of fuel and develops definite plans to reduce fuel consumption in military vehicles, the armed services will continue to be burdened by the huge logistical and financial strains of transporting fuel to the battlefield, experts said.

The Defense Department is the largest single consumer of fuel in the United States, using approximately 1.8 percent of the country's total transportation fuel.

That comes as no surprise, considering the types of vehicles used by U.S. military ground forces. For example, an Abrams Tank, which weighs 68 tons, is a gas guzzler, getting only about a half mile to a gallon. But the Abrams offers unparalleled protection from enemy fire. A lighter, hybrid-electric vehicle, while more fuel-efficient, is less survivable.

In 1999, the office of the undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics asked the Defense Science Board to explore the problems associated with the fuel burden on the U.S. military.

The panel concluded that unconstrained fuel requirements are a burden to military forces. The Defense Science Board's challenge was then to recommend solutions to this problem. The DSB report, released last year, was entitled, "More Capable Warfighting Through Reduced Fuel Burden."

The report acknowledged that the high levels of emissions from U.S. military vehicles had come under scrutiny since the United States joined the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which seeks to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Fossil fuel emissions generate heat-trapping greenhouse gases.

The convention called on the member countries to "anticipate, prevent or minimize damage from climate change before it happens." Since the federal government uses approximately 1 percent of the country's energy supply, with the Defense Department raking approximately 80 percent of that, Defense naturally was one of the first agencies called upon to reduce emissions.

Joint Vision 2010 and Joint Vision 2020, two Defense Department planning documents, emphasized the importance of fuel efficiency. The DSB concluded that, "dramatic improvements in fuel efficiency of platforms and systems are critical enablers of Joint Vision 2010-2020 objectives."

Though the report was commissioned during the Clinton administration, it was well received by the current leadership, officials said. "We thought that there were several good recommendations in...