Joint-Basing Funding
Abstract
The Department of Defense (DOD) has gone through several Base Realignment and Closure programs, commonly called BRAC, since the late 1980's. The rationale was to reduce costs by closing or realigning unneeded installations, functions, and organizations. However, the original estimated savings have turned out to be wildly optimistic. In many cases the savings have totally evaporated, displaced by additional costs that were not predicted or could not be anticipated. This paper will look at one initiative from the 2005 BRAC report. Joint-Basing was intended to save over $2.3 billion over 20 years by consolidating support operations from different bases or posts geographically close to each other. The original 2005 BRAC report predicted reductions of 1,153 military and 968 civilian billets. However, no military billets were taken due to later guidance and directives. Few civilian billets were actually cut. The number of civilian billets to be transferred from the losing to the gaining units actually grew from the original manpower figures. New organizational structures to manage the joint organizations added additional overhead. New requirements for common support activities (such as security, child care, trash pickup, grounds maintenance, etc) will add over 1,000 civilian billets. The research to date indicates no savings will be realized while new expenses will cost almost $2.7 billion over the same 20 year period. Joint-Basing is actually costing the Department of Defense more money than if the 26 bases and posts had remained separate.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Feb 17, 2010
- Accession Number
- ADA519625
Entities
People
- Jeffrey K. Mcneely
Organizations
- Air War College