BAE trains sites on greener military

The environmental movement and the defence industry might not be the most natural of bedfellows, but that has not stopped BAE Systems announcing plans for a new research project designed to reduce the environmental impact of the military equipment it produces.

The defence giant announced yesterday that it has signed a three-year research partnership with the University of Central Lancashire designed to improve energy management and efficiency at military sites and identify potential low-carbon technologies for unmanned spy planes.

The project will receive £1m in funding from BAE with a further £400,000 provided by the university.

Speaking on the sidelines of an event to mark the launch of the partnership at the Houses of Parliament, project leader Professor Joe Howe said that the team would focus on improving the efficiency of both distributed and static military energy systems, and also undertake a conceptual study on how to increase flight times for unmanned aircraft by drawing on different energy sources.

"The military is always looking for self-sufficient and multiple-energy sources," he explained. "A soldier or a base with just one power source is more vulnerable than one that can draw on different sources of power."

He added that the project will look at a range of different technologies, including new battery, microgeneration and energy management systems, many of which could also be adapted for civilian applications.

For example, part of the project is expected to look at automatically managing when electrical equipment is used across a military base in order to ensure generators run at the optimum level.

Nigel Whitehead, group managing director, programmes & support at BAE Systems, said that there were clear commercial and operational benefits to be gained from improving the energy efficiency of the company's products, arguing that military technologies that improve fuel efficiency ultimately ensure that "fewer people are put in harm's way".

"We were the first company to sign the Ministry of Defence's sustainable procurement strategy and that commits us to finding ways to use energy more efficiently," he said.

Whitehead added that as a manufacturing company with a £50m-a-year energy bill, BAE was also looking to cut energy use and carbon emissions across its own operations.

"There's a whole lot we can do to make better use of energy," he said. "For example, we are rolling out video conferencing across the business and it has proved extremely popular.

"If you tell people they can fly to another time zone for a meeting and then spend the weekend getting over the jet lag, or they can use the video conferencing suite, they tend to go for the video."