The New and Improved Tomahawk Missile Now Runs on Corn

by Kyle Mizokami (Popular Mechanics) The new fuel blend uses feedstocks instead of petroleum in an effort to limit the military's dependence on fossil fuels. -- Modern cruise missiles are powered by turbine engines running off JP-10. -Scientists at Los Alamos National Labs have created a new formulation of JP-10 that uses feedstocks instead of petroleum. - The result is a domestic, renewable fuel source that the lab believes will be significantly cheaper to use.

One of the nation’s most prestigious national labs has developed a new fuel substitute for the same jet fuel that powers cruise missiles. Los Alamos National Labs has come up with a replacement fuel for JP-10 that uses corn bran and other feedstocks instead of petroleum products. The result is a fuel that can be sourced directly from America’s most plentiful crop, bypassing foreign sources.

The Tomahawk missile is one of the most plentiful missiles in the US military arsenal. Developed in the 1970s, Tomahawk was one of the first low-altitude, radar-evading cruise missiles to enter service, and today 145 U.S. Navy warships carry the missile daily as part of their standard missile loadout. Unlike other missiles that are powered by rocket motors, the Tomahawk and others like it are powered by turbine engines, in effect miniature, single-use airplane engines that trade speed for fuel efficiency and range. These engines, like their bigger, more powerful cousins run on JP-10 jet fuel.

The fuel is made with a byproduct of the process for making corn-based ethanol, making more efficient use of the corn and giving ethanol manufacturers an incentive to manufacture it.

LANL believes that JP-10’s high energy density might lead more high-performance jet engines to use the fuel. This would result in planes with longer ranges or that need to carry less fuel to get from Point A to Point B. If so, this new fuel could be yet another military innovation that carries over to the civilian world. READ MORE