Uganda Can Save Billions, Boost Efficiency by Greening Military Transport
About a decade ago, the government found the pilferage of fuel for the armed forces unsustainable (of course no amount of pilferage in the security forces is tolerable as it compromises the nation’s entire safety) and decided to colour the army’s petrol green.
Whatever number of billions have since been saved as a result of the fuel greening hasn’t been announced to the public as it may be classified information. However, the green fuel continued powering many private vehicles especially the PSV taxis. The small bushes along the highways after exiting greater Kampala where PSV drivers used to stop to fill up remained operational for some time, though they can argue that they were getting their supplies from another coloured source. Hopefully the “supply bushes” didn’t just relocate to fewer known spots.
Before the lockdown early 2020, most taxis from Ntinda to Kampala city centre were avoiding the Nakawa junction, blaming the traffic jam, preferring to pass Naguru, to the satisfaction of their passengers. What they never said was that they would have to stop at some kiosk just after passing the police headquarters to fill up from jerry cans ferried from the shanty dwellings of the police personnel. They suppliers could argue that the fuel in the dirty jerry cans was from another source not Uganda Police Force.
However smart greening the fuel may be, greening the technology would even be smarter. Even the adoption of fuel cards by different organisations just shifted the fuel theft from “more needy thieves” who were physically handling the fuel the “less needy thieves” using computers on their desks. But instead of theorizing, why not take a look at what the world’s greatest military is doing?
The United States’(first female) Secretary of the Army Christine Wormuth was recently quoted thus: “The Army must adapt across our entire enterprise and purposefully pursue greenhouse gas mitigation strategies to reduce climate risks. If we do not take action now, across our installations, acquisition and logistics, and training, our options to mitigate these risks will become more constrained with each passing year.
The US military is reported to already have removed a whopping 18,000 fuel vehicles from its fleet (okay, they don’t tell you from how many) and saved millions upon millions of dollars in the process. They are installing 470 charging stations this year
A Ugandan can react by saying that the US has the money. But it is the poorer countries that need more to institute measures for saving money, not so?
The US Army has already launched its comprehensive climate smart strategy, the UPDF doesn’t have to tell us theirs, but they should have it; they better have it.
Logistics is an integral part of any army. Indeed, without Logistics there is no army. The ballistic capacity of the military reached higher than it ever should over 75 years ago (Hiroshima, Nagasaki) and since then the challenge has been and remains delivery. How far, how fast, how accurately and with minimal danger to personnel is the question. It will be some years before Uganda starts refining its petroleum. It is by God’s grace that the Army has never been incapacitated due to lack of fuel. But as the developed world shifts from internal combustion engines to electric vehicles, it would safe to assume that there will be less fuels being refined and those who will be depending on internal combustion engines will be spending more money of less fuel.
The UPDF has already been building capacity in manufacturing electric mobility equipment in partnership with Kiira Motors Corporation. The UPDF is actually playing the key role in building the Kiira Vehicle Plant for building electric (and other) vehicles in Jinja. What is known to the public is that the UPDF part of the trail blazing efforts to develop Ugandan’s civilian automotive industry. At least. It will be some years before Uganda starts refining its fuel. It is therefore prudent for Uganda’s army to start making more electric vehicles first for non-tactical use. That way, as it spends less on fuel, it will always have enough money for fuel for the equipment that must use fuel.
And on a brighter side, Uganda has the raw materials required for the electrification of the locomotion.
