With U.S. forces in Iraq no longer getting free fuel from Kuwait,
the Defense Department may have to get serious about cutting back
on consumption. It may take many years, however, for the military
services to acquire more fuel-efficient hybrid-electric vehicles.
U.S. troops in Iraq consume one-and-a-half million gallons of fuel
a day, but all that fuel came free from Kuwait until earlier this
year, when the deal ended, said Army Lt. Gen. Claude V. Christianson,
director of logistics on the Joint Staff.
The Defense Logistics Agency is negotiating a fuel contract with
suppliers in Kuwait, Jordan and Turkey. Meanwhile, the services
have yet to set a strategy for how to make their vehicles more efficient.
Hydrogen fuel cells pose safety problems, and hybrid-electric engines
are too fragile for the battlefield, Christianson said. The biggest
logistic challenge for the military in the next five to eight years,
he said, will continue to be transporting and storing massive quantities
of fuel, ammunition and water.