* Pentagon Energy use data from a recent Congressional testimony [PDF] by Sharon Burke, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Operational Energy Plans and Programs:
“For FY13, DoD anticipates spending over $16 billion on energy for military operations, which will provide more than 4 billion gallons of fuel for military operations and exercises. DoD will also invest $1.4 billion on initiatives to improve operational energy security, about 90% of which are aimed at reducing DoD’s demand for operational energy. […] DoD is the single largest consumer of energy in the nation, accounting for approximately 1% of national demand.”
* DoD is not only starting to inject energy considerations into requirements for new platforms via Fully Burdened Cost of Energy analyses, Burke also stated that “in FY12 and FY13, we also will look at how to ensure that improved energy performance will be incorporated into refit and upgrades of legacy platforms and equipment, whether through contracting or other methods. ” This comes in a context of $100+ per barrel of oil vs. a budgeted $88 for FY12. DoD comptroller Robert Hale said last month that every dollar above $88 translates into an extra $31M in spending.
* An audit [PDF] of the US Army’s migration to Enterprise Email (i.e. Microsoft Exchange) finds that the amount of savings expected out of it was overstated. The Army Audit Agency’s own estimate forecasts savings of $57M to $86M per year or a total of $379.9M over the FY13-17 period (see data table at the bottom of this entry). The Army’s original Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) was counting on savings as high as $140M/year. With a projected total of 1.6 million users the revised numbers amount to an average cost of $117/user/year.
* 48 members of the US House of Representatives wrote [PDF] to President Obama in support of Macedonia’s accession to NATO, which has been blocked by Greece for years because of a dispute over the country’s name and what it implies. Meanwhile the Centre for European Reform looked at the implications of multipolarity for Central Europe’s security.
* On the possibility of routing logistics to Afghanistan via a transit center set in the Russian city of Ulyanovsk: NATO Defense College report [PDF]; Der Spiegel article [in English]. At stake: how to get out of Afghanistan, and at what cost. A (rejiggered?) Northern Distribution Network may mitigate the loss of the Pakistani option and possibly Kyrgyzstan as well.
* Reading This In Public Will Make Me Look Smart research paper of the day: Grand Strategy and International Law [PDF] from the National Defense University. Go ahead, print it, we dare you.
* The City of Paris is challenging in court [in French] the building permit granted by the French authorities to proceed with what is commonly known as “the French Pentagon”, even though the future Ministry of Defense building does not nearly look like a 5-side shape. By 2016 the MINDEF intends to consolidate around itself the joint chiefs of staff, the DGA procurement agency and the SGA general services. Major construction company Bouygues won a 3.5 billion euro contract ($4.6B) in a massive project that may remind Parisians of the Ministry of Finance’s massive move to Bercy, also by the Seine river but on the other side of the city. The 16.5-hectare (41 acres) Balard site is located southwest within Paris in an area where apartments currently sell for close to $1,150/square foot.
