Support Infrastructure Management

Why It's High Risk

The Department of Defense (DOD) owns and operates about 577,000 buildings and other structures worldwide—including training facilities, office space, military hospitals, and equipment maintenance depots—worth a replacement value of about $712 billion. This infrastructure is critical to maintaining military readiness, and the cost to build and maintain it represents a significant financial commitment.

While DOD has made progress and continues to improve its support infrastructure, it faces challenges in managing its portfolio of facilities, halting facilities' degradation, and reducing unneeded infrastructure to save money. Because of these types of issues, DOD's management of support infrastructure has been on GAO's list of high-risk programs designated as vulnerable to waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement since 1997.

• closing bases and realigning more than 120,000 personnel under the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure initiative;
• expanding the Army and Marine Corps by a total of about 100,000 personnel by 2013;
• rebasing up to 170,000 servicemembers, dependents, and civilian employees from overseas to the United States under the Integrated Global Posture and Basing Strategy;
• implementing Army modularity; and
• relocating about 17,000 Marines and their dependents from Okinawa to Guam—all prompting significant construction.

Further, the return of combat forces from overseas may add to the stresses due to a lack of sufficient infrastructure because the forces would be returning while DOD undertakes significant construction to support the other initiatives.

^ Back to topWhat We Found

While DOD has made progress in several areas to improve its support infrastructure, we have reported that:

• The cost to implement the base realignment and closure recommendations have increased by almost $14 billion since 2005, net annual recurring savings has decreased, and it will take 4 years longer than planned, to 2017, to recoup the upfront implementation costs (GAO-10-98R).
• DOD faces significant budgeting challenges to complete all required construction, conduct environmental remediation, maintain its installations to avoid degradation, and ensure adequate installation support for DOD's mission and quality of life for DOD personnel
  Highlights of GAO-08-502 (PDF), Highlights of GAO-08-159 (PDF), Highlights of GAO-06-852 (PDF)
• Twenty U.S. communities and the island of Guam are substantially and seriously challenged in their ability to provide adequate infrastructure surrounding bases that are growing due to Base Realignment and Closure decisions, increases in the size of the Army and Marine Corps, overseas rebasing, and Army modularity
  Highlights of GAO-09-653 (PDF), Highlights of GAO-09-585 (PDF), Highlights of GAO-08-665 (PDF), Highlights of GAO-08-1005 (PDF)
• DOD training ranges are critical to maintaining readiness, but the ranges face increasing limitations and restrictions on land, water, and airspace as residential, commercial, and industrial development continues to expand around and encroach on remote training sites
  Highlights of GAO-08-10R (PDF)

^ Back to topWhat Needs to Be Done

DOD needs to:

• provide more transparency over its estimated savings from base realignment and closure implementation and should clearly identify the key sources of any savings that the department expects to obtain.
  Highlights of GAO-08-341T (PDF), Highlights of GAO-08-159 (PDF)
• improve its oversight of the number and cost of its relocatable facilities—a temporary measure used to meet short-term physical infrastructure needs—and develop a comprehensive department-wide strategy for managing the use of these facilities, including the transfer of relocatables from one location to another.
  Highlights of GAO-09-585 (PDF)
• periodically review its support standards and costs for joint bases to help ensure economies and efficiencies and to better inform Congress on estimated installation support costs and on facility sustainment funds used for other purposes than joint bases.
  Highlights of GAO-09-336 (PDF)
• ensure safe and healthful work and residential environments for servicemembers and their families by improving facilities' condition. Specifically, DOD must (1) increase the facilities sustainment model's reliability by verifying real property inventory records and documenting the basis for the model's sustainment cost factors; (2) address deferred facility sustainment needs by clearly defining deferred sustainment requirements, explaining when deferred sustainment becomes restoration, and directing the military services to consistently measure and address deferred sustainment needs; and (3) establish and meet implementation milestones for the installation services model.
  Highlights of GAO-08-502 (PDF)
• effectively communicate with local authorities to ensure that communities near growing bases are positioned to provide civilian infrastructure to support viable bases. Improving communications assists communities in providing transportation, education services, water and sewer infrastructure; and housing. Specifically, DOD needs to improve the military personnel relocation data for affected communities and facilitate effective interagency and intergovernmental coordination and assistance.
  Highlights of GAO-08-665 (PDF)

^ Back to topKey Reports

Military Base Realignments and Closures: Estimated Costs Have Increased While Savings Estimates Have Decreased Since Fiscal Year 2009

GAO-10-98R, November 13, 2009

Summary (HTML)   Full Report (PDF, 23 pages)   Accessible Text

Defense Infrastructure: High-Level Leadership Needed to Help Communities Address Challenges Caused by DOD-Related Growth

GAO-08-665, June 17, 2008

Summary (HTML)   Highlights Page (PDF)   Full Report (PDF, 55 pages)   Accessible Text   Recommendations (HTML)

Defense Infrastructure: Continued Management Attention Is Needed to Support Installation Facilities and Operations

GAO-08-502, April 24, 2008

Summary (HTML)   Highlights Page (PDF)   Full Report (PDF, 69 pages)   Accessible Text   Recommendations (HTML)

More Reports