Energy Ops

A newly obtained memo from the Defense Department's operational energy chief lays out the process by which DOD plans to certify, test and eventually buy alternative fuels.

The memo from Sharon Burke, DOD's assistant secretary for operational energy plans and programs, is dated July 5. The document outlines the steps the military services must take if they hope to introduce alternative fuels into their fleets and emphasizes that spending considerations and operational benefits are paramount.

“It should be stressed that operational military readiness and battlespace effectiveness are the desired end-state, not simply the use of alternative fuels,” Burke writes in the memo. “Alternative fuels can be a means to ensure combat effectiveness, logistical flexibility and to mitigate Anti-Access/Area Denial (A2AD) effects.”

The memo adds that all DOD alternative fuels investment will be “subject to a rigorous, merit-based evaluation” and will be reviewed annually as part of the department's internal budget certification process.

The alternative fuels development process is broken down into three phases, Burke writes. In the first, the services must consider a number of issues in determining what fuels to spend money qualifying their platforms to operate on; the second explains how the services would be expected to justify and pay for field demonstrations of those fuels; and the third involves working successfully tested alternative fuels into the Defense Logistics Agency's fuel-purchasing supply chain.