Panel: Navy will need oil for decades

Even as designers experiment with new ways to power the warships of the future, the surface Navy will remain dependent on fossil fuels for at least the next 40 to 50 years, a panel of naval engineers said Tuesday.

Cruisers, destroyers, amphibious ships and littoral combat ships all will probably continue to need some kind of fuel oil, no matter what advanced propulsion systems are fitted or back-fitted on ships, said engineer Alan Roberts. He appeared with colleagues before a meeting of the American Society of Naval Engineers outside Washington.


His talk underscored a larger theme of the engineers