Planetary Gear

"If we were to sum this up in a bumper sticker, it would say something like: 'America, the U.S. military gave you the Hummer. Now we're taking it back."

Dennis McGinn, a retired vice admiral in the Navy and former commander of the U.S. Third Fleet, spoke those words Monday during a teleconference.

McGinn is on the military advisory board of the not-for-profit Center for Naval Analyses. The group issued a report (PDF) on Monday, stating the U.S. military must, as a matter of national security, work to reduce its dependence not just on foreign oil, but on natural gas, coal, and an increasingly unstable U.S. electrical grid.

"We believe in the study that national security, energy security, and climate change are interdependent. We've come up with a list of findings and priorities, a challenge to the DOD, an opportunity to lead," John Napman, a retired admiral, said during the teleconference.

McGinn added: "We're heavily dependent on a global petroleum market that's volatile, but it's not just restricted to oil. Natural gas and coal also ran huge spikes in the last year."

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The transfer of wealth (via fuel purchases) to nations associated with terrorism has essentially put the U.S. in the position of financing both sides of conflicts and has been a wake-up call to the military, according to McGinn.

To some degree, the Department of Defense has already made strides toward increased use of electrical vehicles for light-use and of some hybrid and alternative fuel vehicles for other uses, according to Gordon Sullivan, a retired general and former U.S. Army chief of staff.

"Throughout DOD installations, you'll find a lot of the pick-up trucks. (There's a lot of) natural gas being used. And I think in the administrative fleets, you'll see a lot of that. And some of these things that look like John Deere Gators or whatever. They're like golf carts fueled by natural gas," said Sullivan.

But reducing foreign oil dependence is not enough, according to the report.

Military installations "are almost completely dependent on commercial electrical power delivered through the national electrical grid," according to the report signed by 12 former U.S. generals and admirals, and sponsored by the Bipartisan Policy Center, the Energy Foundation, and the Grayce B. Kerr Foundation.

Considering the military's increased reliance on computers to analyze data, provide tactical support to troops, and remotely fly UAVs like the Predator, the "outdated, fragile, and overtaxed national electrical grid is a dangerously weak link in the national security infrastructure," said the report.

The report also recommended a slowdown of the development of coal-to-liquid fuels for the U.S. Air Force in favor of fossil- and alternative-based blends. It pointed to DARPA's $100 million in research and development toward JP-8 blends from nonfood crops such as algae and other plant-based biomass as an area in which the DOD has already expressed interest.

By addressing its own needs with regard to developing electrical smart grids, fuel efficient vehicles, and even jet fuel, the Department of Defense can influence the general market as it did with the invention of the Humvee, according to both Sullivan and McGinn.

Only this time, that crossover vehicle from military to civilian drivers will likely be a lot more fuel efficient.

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates on Monday put forth the Pentagon's 2010 budget proposal, essentially a complete overhaul to the way the military spends money.

It would change the way lucrative government contracts are handed out, or in more official terms, the process of "procurement, acquisition, and contracting."

The budget includes a myriad of cuts, but there are also some interesting additions that show the military's increased interest in robotics and communications, particularly in unmanned aerial vehicles(UAVs).

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates (left) with Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General James Cartwright, at Monday's press conference.

(Credit: Department of Defense/Cherie Cullen)

Proposed additions include buying 30 F-35 Joint Strike Fighters for 2010 (513 over the next five years); increasing the military's budget for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance support by about $2 billion; increasing the number of "cyber experts" in training from 80 to 250 by 2011; and increasing the number of UAVs like the Predator.

Experts have described the Predator as the most dangerous military robot currently out there, noting that 11 out of the 20 al-Qaeda leaders the U.S. military has apprehended have been tracked down via a drone strike. Gates himself described the successful use of UAVs in Iraq and Afghanistan during his budget proposal speech.

"This will include: Fielding and sustaining 50 Predator and Reaper class unmanned aerial vehicle orbits by FY '11 and maximizing their production," Gates said. "This capability, which has been in such high demand in both Iraq and Afghanistan, will now be permanently funded in the base budget. It will represent a 62 percent increase in capability over the current level and 127 percent from a year ago," Gates said.

Politicians are already voicing their opinions on why or why not certain parts of the budget proposal should pass.

The battle of the defense budget will test whether Americans want change of a fundamental nature on the ways things are done in their military.

While it may amount to a showdown between the political old and new guards, it isn't necessarily a case of legacy defense contractors versus upstart tech companies. Robots in the military may bring to mind iRobot's PackBot, but the UAVs mentioned by Gates are actually produced by teams of people employed by standby defense contractors.

The Predator and the Reaper are built by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, an affiliate of General Atomics that has been a government contractor to agencies including the Department of Energy, Department of Defense, and the National Science Foundation for more than 50 years.

Manufacturers and suppliers for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighters include heavyweight contractors Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Pratt and Whitney Military Engines, and General Electric.