Like most of the rest of the country, the Air Force anticipates a much larger energy bill in the near future—estimates range from 50 percent to 100 percent, says USAF energy team manager Gary Hein. So, what to do? The Air Force has directed its facilities to practice even greater energy conservation. But, the Air Force, years ago, made the easy fixes—turning down thermostats and turning off excess lights. “The money is going to have to come from someplace,” says Hein, adding, “that someplace is the operating and maintenance budget.”
The Air Force awarded a $13.08 billion contract to the Sierra Nevada Corporation on April 26 for its Survivable Airborne Operations Center aircraft, the successor to the service’s E-4B “Doomsday” plane. Like the E-4B, officially called the National Airborne Operations Center, the SAOC will be meant to withstand a nuclear attack and keep…