Tough to free troops from oppressive tyranny of fuel.

• Author: Erwin, Sandra L.
• Position: DEFENSE WATCH

What will it take for the military to be greener? If $400 a gallon fuel, incalculable logistics burdens and losses of human life don't light a fire under the leaders of the Defense Department, it's hard to imagine what will.

The current wars have exposed a previously ignored military vulnerability: the huge dependence on fossil fuels. The daily requirement for Afghanistan is 300,000 gallons a day. Most of it comes through a tenuous supply line through Pakistan where fuel theft is on the rise and roadside bombs target convoys.

At the Pentagon, officials are fully aware of the situation but are not sure what to do about it.

At least the Defense Department can't say that it wasn't warned. As early as January 2001, the Defense Science Board called on the Pentagon to do something about its fuel-hog weapons systems and the massive logistics tail associated with bringing fuel to the battlefield. The report noted that 70 percent of the tonnage required to position the Army into battle is fuel. And that was before the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In Afghanistan, particularly, the dreaded fuel tether has turned into an albatross.

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"Next to Antarctica, Afghanistan is probably the most incommodious place to be trying to fight a war," says defense acquisition chief Ashton Carter. The British army recently estimated that it takes seven gallons of fuel to deliver one gallon to Afghanistan. Not a small matter is the price tag associated with transporting and protecting the fuel supply: up to $400 per gallon. The Wall Street Journal reported that the Pentagon is spending $1 million per soldier deployed in Afghanistan, and up to $350,000 of that is for the fuel needed to support that soldier.

So far, the Pentagon has been focused on improving the energy efficiency of its fixed facilities and non-tactical vehicles, but has been slow in adopting green practices for making weapons and vehicles that burn less fuel, and finding ways to produce renewable energy in the field. The commandant of the Marine Corps, Gen. James Conway, has asked for items such as portable solar panels and wind turbines, but that may only help marginally.

Even though the Defense Department has acknowledged that it faces an enormous challenge, it has not made the cultural and technological changes that would be needed to reduce fossil fuel consumption. Now, the enemy has "found our Achilles' heel," says Charles F. Wald, retired Air Force general and senior defense...