I'm in the early stages of a project on how the military uses fuel, and how that shapes the force and the way they fight.

I first became interested in the project after I read a pair of reports by the Defense Science Board. Collectively, they argue that fuel isn't only a tremendous cost for the military, but also a logistical burden, since 50% of the Army is logistics and 70% of what they carry by weight is JP8.

The argument, of course, is that reducing fuel consumption in end use (MFE units) has a disporportionate effect on support units, especially as as much as half of the fuel used in theater is used to deliver more fuel.

In other words, reducing fuel consumption (without sacrificing other performance) may be a way to sharpen the tooth to tail ratio.

I'd welcome any assistance or guidance that any of you can give on these topics, as well as the single fuel concept, the burdened cost of fuel, future vehicle design etc, or anything else that you may find salient.

I'll be building a bibliography today and perhaps I can add that to this thread later, if anyone is interested.