By CHAD GARLAND | STARS AND STRIPES Published: May 12, 2021 Military researchers are helping “scale up” the use of E.coli to produce fuel for Hellfire missiles, part of a larger push to manufacture small batches of specialty chemicals in cheaper and cleaner ways using microbes. The use of gut bacteria to make missile propellant is a “larger proof of concept” for the Army’s expansion of biological manufacturing capabilities. The hope is that it will wean the U.S. military off chemicals derived from crude oil in “costly petrochemical facilities” and often available through limited suppliers, the Combat Capabilities Development Command Chemical Biological Center said in a statement.
By CHAD GARLAND | STARS AND STRIPES Published: May 12, 2021 Military researchers are helping “scale up” the use of E.coli to produce fuel for Hellfire missiles, part of a larger push to manufacture small batches of specialty chemicals in cheaper and cleaner ways using microbes. The use of gut bacteria to make missile propellant is a “larger proof of concept” for the Army’s expansion of biological manufacturing capabilities. The hope is that it will wean the U.S. military off chemicals derived from crude oil in “costly petrochemical facilities” and often available through limited suppliers, the Combat Capabilities Development Command Chemical Biological Center said in a statement.
Published:
February 13, 2021 at 8:36 am
By the middle of September 1944 the Allied drive east across France towards the German border had almost reached the end of its tether. The American XX Corps had as its objective the French city of Metz, 20 miles west of the border, but they were thinly stretched against a desperate enemy fighting to defend the Third Reich.
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Two US divisions were assigned to the assault on Metz, but the problem facing HQ was the lack of troops at their disposal to guard the 50 miles that lay between the city and the Luxembourg border to the north. This was needed to ensure that the Germans didn’t launch a sweeping counteroffensive.