Sea Power - May 2016

11 WWW.SEAPOWERMAGAZINE.ORG SEAPOWER / MAY 2016

we have only so many units to be in different places. Stay time, being there for longer periods of time, is also paramount.

Energy is a much more valued commodity than in the past. The more we make better use of it — more spartan use of it — the better we will be in terms of accomplishing more things, to include the endurance of our ships and planes on point. Frankly, that is combat capability.

The first deployment of the Great Green Fleet in 2012 was to demonstrate, test and experiment. With regard to the Great Green Fleet on this current deployment, what are the overarching goals?

CULLOM: Any unit can actually be a part of that Great Green Fleet if they are using new technologies, if they’ve come up with an operational concept by which they want to operate. So if they are able to use a certain tanking pattern that is a little bit different and more efficient, that is one effort that will lend them toward operations in the Great Green Fleet. They can use different technologies — stern flaps, variable speed fans, LED lighting, etc. If they have any combination of three different kinds of energy initiatives — efficiencies, operational concepts or alternative fuels — then they can be a member of the Great Green Fleet.

One of the goals of this is to continue prototyping, and experimenting and operating with these fuels. Today, it is no longer just a test. This is the new normal, and a key piece of the new normal is not just about the fuel you use, but how efficiently you can use it.

In some measure, that is why the Great Green Fleet has started to garner an awful lot of interest at the fleet and the individual unit and ship levels, because it’s not just the Stennis Strike Group. That was the kickoff to it, but it’s actually the entire fleet using different kinds of fuel and energy-efficient technologies and processes, if they can. Frankly, every carrier strike group uses an alternative fuel in the form of nuclear power, as opposed to the conventional fuels.

Now, we know the benefit that that provides us; we’ve been the beneficiaries of that since Adm. [Hyman G.] Rickover started us down that path in the late ’50s and early ’60s. But it’s also about what other things we can do that will give us greater endurance and time on station with our ships and units. It’s about changing our operational concepts, so that we can stay on station longer, we can operate and fly further, and stay on station. Those are pretty essential things to have in this future world that we’re in.

And what we’re finding is that we’re not the only ones thinking this way. It isn’t just the United States Navy. We have partner navies that are also very keen and very interested in being a part of a global Great Green Fleet.