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Or. Truver is vice president, national security studies, and director of the Center for Secu- rity Strategies and Operations for Anteon Corporation in Arlington, Va. This professional note was adapted from his keynote speech at the Electric Ships Conference, 17 May 2001. Dr. Edward C. Whitman, the center's naval science advisor, assisted him in the effort. Reprinted from Proceedings with Permission - Copyright © 2001 U.S. Naval Institute. because of common components and systems. A total cost reduction of at least 20 percent will be realized throughout the fleet. • Fossil fuel savings will be even more impressive-as much as 25-30 percent, depending on ship type. Industry data show that a DD-21 outfitted with the advanced WR-21 gas turbine and IPS and IED systems will on average cost approximately $80 million less per ship for fuel throughout its service life than today's Arleigh Burke-class destroyer. (Multiplied by the 32 DD-21s in the Navy's plan, the life-cycle savings of some $2.56 billion would be enough to add three ships to the program.) • Electrical components will be much more reliable than the mechanical and hydraulic components they replace and they will be more easily instrumented, thus advancing automation and con- tributing to crew reduction. • Training and maintenance will be facilitated and strengthened on a fleetwide basis. It will be easier to assign people with critical technical and engineering skills to all ship types, with little need for refresher training. Mainte- nance will be enhanced because of broad commonality among electronic technologies and components. Charting a Course Hard on the heels of 20,000 Leagues, Jules Verne wrote Journey to the Moon, also published in 1869. A century later, Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, taking that giant leap for mankind. It is well past time for Verne's vision of an "all-electric" warship to be realized. If the electric-drive community in the Navy, industry, and academia is to be successful in achieving this vision, its focus must be not only on fielding elec- tric-drive warships, but more broadly on what an all-electric Navy means for the nation and its naval forces. Electric drive and integrated power systems are vital warfighting elements of this future fleet-not simply HM&E programs com- peting against "sexier" weapon and sen- sor systems for scarce dollars, people, and time. The United States has the skilled people to do the job. Naval labo- ratories and engineering centers of excellence are without equal. Here and abroad, civilian-commercial industrial bases for advanced electric generators and motors, power-control electronics, solid-state rectifiers and inverters, and high-power switches stand ready to make the necessary leap to military applications-if an adequate return on investment can be garnered. Opponents finally seem to be dying out. A growing generation, familiar with ideas of IED and IPS from the beginning, is assuming positions of authority and responsibility. Integrated power and electric drive cer- tainly can be catalysts for other "leap- ahead" technologies that the Bush administration desires. But still the Navy needs a champion. 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