Center for a New American Security

The Navy’s investment in algae biofuel is having a significant impact on the cost of alternative fuels. Earlier this year, the Navy announced a request for 450,000 gallons of algae biofuel, the largest demand for advanced biofuel to date.  At a Department of Defense Bloggers Roundtable in August 2011, Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus said that with the Navy’s modest demand alone, the price of algae biofuel fuel was cut in half last year and is projected to be cut in half again this year.

Last week, Secretary Mabus announced that the Navy will spend $12 million to buy the requested 450,000 gallons of alternative biofuel for continued testing and evaluation in the Navy’s aircraft, ships and remote piloted vehicles. The cost, according to Mabus, comes to about $26 a gallon. Granted, that’s still a steep price to pay for fuel. But, Secretary Mabus, said, “This is still R&D.” He added, “As the market develops, you will see the cost come down.” Moreover, the new purchase is about 94 percent cheaper than what the Navy paid for its first batch of alternative fuel in 2009: $424 a gallon for 20,055 gallons of biofuel.

The price difference in just two short years aptly demonstrates that significant impact that Navy’s demand signal is having on the cost of alternative fuels, just in the research and development phase alone.

The Navy will conduct its final alternative fuel demonstration for the year this morning in Panama City, Florida. The Navy will test a Landing Craft Air Cushion operating on a 50-50 blend of hydro-processed algal oil and conventional petroleum.

At a briefing yesterday before the Defense Energy Security Caucus, Admiral Philip Cullom, director of the Navy’s Energy and Environmental Readiness Division, spoke to the Navy’s energy security efforts as enhancing the Navy’s war fighting capabilities. And really, that’s what the Navy’s and the other services’ efforts are all about – increasing operational effectiveness through energy efficiency, conservation and innovation. It’s important to remember this point because the choices the services are making in their energy security strategies reflect new technologies and requirements that bolster, not detract from, mission effectiveness. The Navy, for example, would not support the development of alternative liquid fuels that compromise the performance of its air or ship fleet. The choices they make must serve their war fighting capability.

In his remarks yesterday, Admiral Cullom reminded the audience that the Navy has a history of doing this very well. In April 1942, several months after the attacks against Pearl Harbor, Lieutenant Colonel James Doolittle orchestrated a counterattack against Tokyo using a fleet of B-25s launched from the deck of the aircraft carrier Hornet. But the Navy had never done this before, and didn’t know if it could: the carrier runways were too short for the heavy B-25s to takeoff, and it was unclear if they could carry enough fuel for the aviators to reach allied forces in China safely. So, as Admiral Cullom reminded the audience, Doolittle stripped the B-25s of every non-essential piece in the aircraft, making the B-25 lighter and thus more fuel efficient, extending its range several hundred miles so that the aviators could hit their targets and fly to China. It was a successful war-time demonstration of how making air platforms more efficient could enhance the military’s war fighting capability in ways that in the months before seemed impossible. 

Yesterday, the U.S. Navy reached another milestone with a successful demonstration of shipboard alternative fuel, using a 50-50 blend of algae-based oil and petroleum F-76. The demonstration was conducted aboard the decommissioned Spruance-class destroyer Paul F. Foster, a “Self-Defense Test Ship to provide the Navy an at-sea, remotely controlled, engineering test and evaluation platform without the risk to personnel or operational assets.”

Photo: Courtesy of Charlie Houser and the U.S. Navy. 

Once again the Navy is proving to do great things with alternative energy. Last Friday, the Navy reached a new milestone in its biofuel testing program with the successful flight of an EA-6B Prowler. "Given the EA-6B Prowler's critical role in joint warfare it was important that we complete this qualification to allow carrier air wings and expeditionary sites the operational flexibility to utilize biofuel," said Capt. John Green, program manager for the EA-6B.

The Prowler test flight is the most recent in a string of successful demonstrations this year, including a T-45 training aircraft and, most recently, the entire F/A-18 Blue Angels squadron. The Navy is scheduled to test a 50/50 blend of biofuel in the AV-8B Harrier and the Fire Scout unmanned helicopter later this year.  

Photo: Courtesy of Kelly Schindler and the U.S. Navy.

Ever wonder what the U.S. Navy does during its annual ICEX training in the Arctic? All Hands Television has the scoop in this video of the 2011 exercises that runs less than 10 minutes and is worth watching.  Watch the video here. Below I have also provided some quick takeaways that I thought were interesting. Some of them are intuitive but are worth highlighting:

• As new sea lanes open up in the Arctic, the U.S. Navy and others plying those routes will continue to relying on research and science to guide the way. (Something that policymakers in Washington need to consider as they decide on non-discretionary spending cuts, including science programming.) In fact, researchers in the video stress that if the U.S. Navy and others are going to operate in the Arctic, they have to be prepared to operate in that environment – which means being very familiar with this dynamic region.  
• The U.S. Navy provides researchers with longitudinal data to study climate change in the Arctic. Submarines have been storing information about ice thickness since the 1950s, providing researchers with data to understand how that thickness has been changing for more than 60 years and in the wake of global climate change.
• The biggest challenge that submariners face in the Arctic is that, unlike in other seas around the world, they can’t surface just anywhere they want because of the ice thickness in parts of the Arctic Circle. Indeed, this poses some operational challenges that can only be addressed by training in that environment. For example, submarines originally surface at an angle in order to dampen the stress on the their hull. However, punching through three to four feet of ice in the Arctic requires vertical surfacing.
• Besides submarine operations, the U.S. Navy controls and manages all the flight operations that support Arctic missions, including helicopter flights with field parties traveling to remote sites in the Arctic.

What I find particularly interesting is how much time the U.S. Navy’s Public Affairs team put into developing this video in what seems like a direct effort to explain why the Arctic is important to not just the U.S. Navy, but the country as a whole. It’s a great video, and I hope we’ll see more. Perhaps it’s the beginning of a big push to educate policymakers in Washington just as they prepare to make important decisions about federal budget cuts this fall.

Happy Labor Day everyone! We are taking a brief holiday from the blog today, but we wanted to note the Navy’s milestone this weekend. The Navy’s F/A-18 Blue Angels squadron successfully tested a 50/50 blend of biofuel and jet fuel at the Patuxent River Air Expo on September 3, 2011. As Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus noted last week, this is the first time an entire squadron tested the biofuel blend during aerial demonstrations.

Photo: Courtesy of Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Kiona Miller and the U.S. Navy.

Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus spoke at a press conference yesterday at Naval Air Station Patuxent River about this weekend’s Blue Angels biofuel demonstration.  On Saturday and Sunday, the entire Blue Angels squadron will perform at the Patuxent River Air Expo flying on a 50/50 blend of biofuel. “This will be the first time an entire unit has flown on a biofuel mix," Mabus said Tuesday at the National Clean Energy Summit 4.0.    

Photo: Courtesy of Chief Mass Communication Specialist Sam Shavers and the U.S. Navy.

This week, leaders from industry, government and research institutions gathered in Las Vegas for the National Clean Energy Summit. The day-long event featured addresses from Vice President Joe Biden, Energy Secretary Steven Chu and Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus.

On Tuesday, Vice President Biden emphasized the need to “unleash” the innovative potential in the clean energy sector in order to compete with countries like China that are already making huge investments in their own industry so they can compete globally. “This is our generation’s Sputnik moment,” President Obama said in his State of the Union Address earlier this year. “If we don’t develop renewable energy, we will make the biggest mistake in this nation’s history,” Vice President Biden told the Las Vegas audience.

The administration has continued to support its vision for a clean energy future, most recently by authorizing the Departments of Agriculture, Defense and Navy to invest $510 million over three years to stimulate the biofuel industry. “The combined effort of these three departments is a powerful force that will decrease U.S. dependence on foreign oil, position American companies to be global leaders in the production of advanced drop-in biofuels, and create jobs for American farmers and American companies,” Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus said on Tuesday.  

On Wednesday, the U.S. Navy expanded its alternative energy program by testing a 50/50 blend of JP-5 jet fuel and camelina biofuel in a T-45 training aircraft. "This test of the T-45 with a 50/50 blend of biofuel represents another significant milestone in the long list of detailed flight test and demonstrations of the F-18 Super Hornet, the MH-60S, and the V-22," Rear Admiral Phil Cullom, Director of the Chief of Naval Operations Energy and Environmental Readiness Division, said in a press release. "Our commitment to the aggressive test schedule for drop-in replacement fuels for JP-5 and F-76 keep us on pace for the 2012 demonstration and 2016 deployment of the Great Green Fleet." The Navy plans to conduct three more biofuel test flights before the end of the year.

Photo: A T-45C Goshawk training aircraft assigned to the Salty Dogs of Air Test and Evaluation Squadron (VX) 23 conducts a test flight using a biofuel blend of JP-5 jet fuel and plant-based camelina. Courtesy of Kelly Schindler and the U.S. Navy.