By NIGEL PITTAWAY
SYDNEY — The Royal Australian Navy will observe biofuel development undertaken by the U.S. Navy following the signing of an historic Statement of Co-operation aboard the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz on July 19.
Following the agreement, signed by Australian Navy Chief Vice Adm. Ray Griggs and U.S. Navy Secretary Ray Mabus, an Australian Seahawk helicopter was refueled with a biofuel blend aboard Nimitz and subsequently made the first biofuel-powered flight by an Australian Navy helicopter.
The U.S. Navy has a requirement to meet half of its fuel needs from alternative sources by 2020 and is planning to sail a fleet across the Pacific to Australia sometime in 2016 as a demonstration of sustainable fuels use. The demonstration will commemorate the arrival of the Great White Fleet in Sydney harbor in 1907 and will then take on biofuels made in Australia for the return journey.
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