Navy Raises Fuel-efficiency with a Hybrid-Electric ShipSeptember 18, 2009
 The Navy's newest amphibious assault ship, the Makin Island, is the first to combine gas turbine engines and electric motors, with the electric motors in use at low speeds and the gas engine kicking in at high speeds. On its maiden voyage, the Makin Island sailed from Northrop Grumman's Ingalls Shipbuilding yard in Pascagoula, Miss., around the tip of South America on its way to San Diego. The ship saved 900,000 gallons of fuel on the trip, worth more than $2 million, thanks to its combination gas turbine engines and electric motors. "We're like a big hybrid car," Capt. Bob Kopas, the commander of the ship, told the San Diego Union-Tribune. The Navy predicts it will save $250 million in fuel costs over the life of the ship, according to the article, and the Makin Island is likely the first in a wave of fuel-efficient electric ships. "It's a watershed for the Navy," Scott Truver, a naval analyst based in Washington, D.C., told the Union-Tribune. "It's a generational shift." The U.S. military is the world's single-largest consumer of oil, according to an article in the Wharton Aerospace & Defense Report. It spent $13.6 billion for energy in 2006, using about 340,000 barrels of oil per day. The Pentagon is always looking for ways to cut fuel costs and has even updated its acquisition requirements by making fuel efficiency a specific item of concern for Defense contractors. The Makin Island is a Wasp-class flattop amphibious assault ship–the last of eight to be delivered since 1989, according to the Union-Tribune. "This is the thin edge of the wedge for propulsion systems," Truver told the Union-Tribune. |
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