The Air Force plans to power its entire fleet of B-52 bombers with a synthetic fuel blend by year’s end, if the “detailed analysis” of recently completed testing, including extreme weather conditions at Minot AFB, N.D., and physical inspection of the test BUFF “prove out,” says Michael Aimone, USAF’s top civilian loggie. Aimone told Senators at a Finance Committee hearing Tuesday that preliminary inspections have found “no deleterious effects” from use of a synthetic blend jet fuel in the B-52, which has just returned from Minot to Edwards AFB, Calif. He expects to see a full test report this summer. The motivating factor in converting to synfuel, of course, is to reduce some of USAF’s staggering $7 billion annual energy bill. Aimone noted that fueling Air Force aircraft accounts for 80 percent of that bill. Next, the service may introduce synfuel for its tanker fleet.
The Pentagon needs a Digital Command and a Digital Warfare Corps, along with other changes, to take advantage of critical new technologies, according to a think tank founded by former Google CEO and Chairman Eric Schmidt.
