By Tina Casey •
January 18, 2010
The U.S. Army proudly showed off its new Clandestine Electric Reconnaissance Vehicle (CERV) at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit last week, and let’s just say that on looks this diesel-electric hybrid can’t compete with eye candy like Toyota’s new FT-CH Prius concept. But, at least it gets you where you want to go - with a 25% reduction in fuel consumption.
As the owner of the world’s largest fleet of vehicles, the U.S. Army is on an all-out drive to adopt sustainable new fuels and hybrid technologies to reduce its dependence on fossil fuels. The CERV is just one part of a U.S. military research and development program that includes energy storage, power and thermal management, robotics, and survivability as well as vehicle design.
By Tina Casey •
November 16, 2009
If we need just one more reason to be convinced that the era of fossil fuels is quickly winding down, 30,000 square feet of evidence is going up right now in the suburban Detroit town of Warren, Michigan. That’s where the U.S. Army is building its new Ground System Power and Energy Laboratory (GSPEL), and it’s no accident that the site is deep in the heart of the U.S. auto industry.
The high tech GSPEL complex features eight separate laboratories, all dedicated to the development of more sustainable military vehicles and related systems: increasing energy efficiency, using more renewable resources, focusing on ready access to energy and power, and reducing environmental impacts. It’s all part of the military’s overall drive to shed fossil fuels—both foreign domestic—and focus on energy security for the 21st century.
By Beth Graddon-Hodgson •
September 28, 2009
By 2011 the US Army’s Space & Missile Defense Command has plans to deploy a spy ship, which will be unmanned over Afghanistan. While this is a controversial move in itself, some eco-enthusiasts are applauding the consideration to model the aircraft after an experimental hybrid airship which took flight on a number of occasions in 2006.
By Rhishja Larson •
September 14, 2009
The Army’s proposal to move 1,000 desert tortoises has been placed on hold by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, amid concerns over the Army’s previous plan that resulted in the death of 252 out of 600 tortoises.
The Center for Biological Diversity announced that a plan by the Army to move over 1,000 federally and state-listed threatened desert tortoises (Gopherus agassizii) from their Fort Irwin habitat to Bureau of Land Management lands has successfully been halted.
By Amiel Blajchman •
January 21, 2009
What sort of efforts does the US Army undertake to protect and manage it impacts on the environment? Perhaps surprisingly to some, the legislative muscle behind Army programs to protect the environment is actually quite robust.
