Construction Contracting: Strategic and Operational Engineering Harnesses the Private Sector in Support of United States National Security Objectives.
Abstract
The United States Army has deployed on numerous occasions since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. These deployments ranged from armed intervention in Panama to a full scale conventional war in the Middle East to humanitarian assistance operations in Africa to peacekeeping operations in Central Europe. On each occasion, the Army has called upon the private sector engineering and construction community worldwide to provide some level of construction work in support of deployed United States forces. The private sector provides what is essentially the strategic engineering capacity of the United States and part of the operational level engineering available to military forces. The engineer force structure, along with the rest of the Army, has declined in size due to perceived lowered threats worldwide and DOD budget constraints. Although structured to support a two major regional contingency threat, the active duty engineer force structure is only 25% of total engineer forces. Numerous factors will continue to require reliance on private sector engineering and construction capabilities to support military forces in the field and broader national security objectives abroad. This paper reviews historical comparisons of engineers deployed in several theaters of operations, discusses use of construction contracting in operations conducted since 1989 and proposes a set of criteria which can be used to determine the appropriateness of construction contracting in support of United States military operations abroad.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Apr 09, 1996
- Accession Number
- ADA309470
Entities
People
- Michael J. Debow
Organizations
- United States Army War College