Secretary of Defense reports on excess installation capacity

Army Logistician, July-August, 2004

The Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) process for 2005 took a significant step forward in March when Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld submitted a force structure plan and infrastructure inventory to Congress. Based on this report, the Secretary certified to Congress "that the need exists for the closure or realignment of additional military installations ..."

In the report, the Department of Defense (DOD) estimated that 24 percent of its infrastructure is excess capacity. Of the individual services, the Army has the greatest amount of excess capacity: 29 percent of its infrastructure. The percentages of excess capacity for the other services are 21 percent for the Navy and 24 percent for the Air Force, as well as 17 percent for the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA). The estimates of excess capacity are based on the infrastructure needs of the forces identified in the force structure plan (as approved by the Joint Chiefs of Staff for fiscal year 2009) and on base capacity assessments made by each military department and DLA.

DOD must present its BRAC recommendations to an independent commission in May 2005. The 2005 BRAC process will be the fifth such analysis, the others being completed in 1988, 1991, 1993, and 1995. Based on the results of the 1993 and 1995 BRAC decisions, DOD believes that next year's BRAC recommendations will produce annual net savings for each military department by fiscal year 2011.