Navy wonders, just how do you trim a $3.8 billion fuel bill?

NORFOLK

For Navy vessels, operating at sea has taken on a different feel.

Some nights, sailors cut the engines and the warship just floats.

“We did a lot of that on deployment,” said Cmdr. Michael Junge, skipper of the Whidbey Island.

The practice helped make Junge’s amphibious ship, which spent six months in the Persian Gulf region, one of the most fuel-efficient in the fleet, he said.

With fuel prices reaching record heights, the Navy has looked for creative ways to curb costs without compromising missions. Conservation efforts are expected to save the Navy about $325 million this year.

But in July, the military bumped up oil prices to $170 per barrel from $127 to reflect true costs. The increase will wipe out the Navy’s entire annual savings in just three months. Fuel costs are an issue for all the service branches.

The military is the country’s largest single consumer of energy. It spent $13.6 billion in 2006, almost double the amount since 2003, the start of the Iraq war. Every $10 increase for a barrel of oil costs the Department of Defense $1.3 billion, according to military statistics.

The Air Force is the top consumer within the military, and the Navy is second.

The Navy expects to spend $3.8 billion to power its ships and aircraft this fiscal year, a 42 percent jump from last year.

For the fleet, cutting the engines during down periods is just one way to conserve.

The Whidbey Island is powered by four 16-cylinder diesel engines capable of steaming at more than 20 knots. Steaming on one engine or two whenever possible cuts costs, Junge said. Planning transit time, speed and destination also maximizes efforts.

When the engines are shut down , the crew takes precautions, such as posting additional watches, to maintain security.

The pressure to save fuel “hasn’t had an immediate impact on training,” said Capt. Arthur “Chip” Cotton, branch head for fleet training and readiness reporting at the Pentagon.

Leadership has looked for other ways to cut costs and still perform missions. Synthetic training – through computer simulations of ship, submarine and aircraft operations – can reduce, though not eliminate, the need for live time, Cotton said.

The Navy simulates training with its foreign partners in NATO, he said.

The French navy nixed plans to send the warship De Grasse for joint training exercises this summer along the East Coast because of the high cost of transit.

A task force planned by the chief of naval operations would seek to make the Navy consider fuel costs when acquiring new systems. Some in Congress are pressing the Navy to build more nuclear-powered vessels.

The task force also would establish conservation goals and investigate the use of alternative fuels, Cotton said.

It would work on securing the energy network afloat and ashore.

The Department of Defense has a similar task force.

About three quarters of the Navy’s costs go toward running the fleet and aircraft, with the rest spent on installations.

The Navy recently finished a year-long study of F/A-18 Hornet and Super Hornet operations, looking to squeeze further efficiencies into operations , said Cmdr. Jim Nichols, an F/A-18 pilot and air wing readiness officer at the naval air force in Norfolk.

The issue has taken on more importance in the fighter jet community, he said.

“The word is out that it’s very important that naval aviation conserve its fuel resources.”

The study considered knotty, real-world problems that sound like standardized test questions. For example, is it more efficient to send two planes with five tanks of fuel or three planes with two tanks? Should a few planes fly long missions, or should several planes fly more frequent short missions?

The answers usually depend on the mission and safety factors, he said. Fighter jets must meet a weight limit to land on a carrier deck, and pilots sometimes dump fuel to lighten up.

The study’s results are expected to help squadrons make better decisions on planning and operations, Nichols said.

Louis Hansen, (757) 446-2322, louis.hansen@pilotonline.com