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Amphibious transport dock USS Portland (LPD 27) transits the Gulf of Aden, Dec. 13,2021  with a Solid State Laser – Technology Maturation Laser Weapons System Demonstrator Mark 2 MOD 0 on board.  (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Patrick Katz)

WASHINGTON: Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks wants the US military to look at how technologies like tanks, ships and drones can be less reliant on fuel, she wrote in a new memo.

Energy reduction is a difficult task for the sprawling, ever-moving US military. When tasked with a mission, providing the energy necessary to power exquisite technology — or even the equipment used by a dismounted soldier — is non-negotiable.

However, future wars may force the services to become more distributed and less reliant on major installations where power sources are available, which in turn “put[s] a premium on capabilities with longer range, time on station, endurance and the ability to adapt to evolving energy needs and technology,” Hicks said in the memo, dated April 21 and released on Earth Day today.

While the department has an energy key performance parameter (KPP) that it is required by statute to apply to weapons programs to understand a technology’s vulnerability to fuel logistics issues, a department assessment of 44 programs “found an inconsistent application” of the energy KPP, Hicks wrote.

“The department’s capability development activities, from requirements to acquisition to sustainment, must increase energy supportability and must reduce energy demand across all capability solutions,” Hicks said. “The joint capacity to meet the demand for energy needed to employ and sustain a capability in all projected scenarios and threat environments should inform the energy performance requirements of all department systems.”

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The memo, which impacts all new programs as well as upgrades to existing programs, lays out several steps the Pentagon will take:

First, it directs the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley and the Joint Requirements Oversight Council to include requirements for energy supportability, energy reduction and used of the energy KPP in recurring strategic guidance. It also notes that the new requirements to enable the Joint Warfighting Concept should include energy supportability considerations whenever possible.

The military services should also look for opportunities to start up pathfinder programs or other new tools and initiatives that reduce operational energy demands or increase supportability, the memo states.

In addition to initiatives aimed at future programs, Hicks’s memo calls on the services to review existing weapons programs, modernization efforts and development programs in the context of energy supportability.

“The review will provide information on how fuel and power demands, opportunities for demand reduction, and energy supportability risks were assessed during initial system concepts, analysis of alternatives, development and fielding or any modernization efforts,” the memo states.

Bill LaPlante, the department’s top acquisition official, will choose the programs that will be included in the review within 14 days, and the service secretaries will provide an interim assessment of those programs 90 days after.

The memo also tasks LaPlante and Milley with ensuring the process for assessing energy supportability is standard across all capability development processes carried out by the Joint Capabilities Integration and Development System (JCIDS) and across the acquisition process at large.

The memo is the latest in a series of actions the Biden administration is taking to address the Defense Department’s contribution to climate change. Last October, the Pentagon released its climate change strategy, which called for both the US military and defense contractors to reduce emissions and make changes to mitigate vulnerabilities to the changing climate.