Navy, Marine Corps eye more joint bases

The Navy and Marine Corps are likely to combine common operations at joint military bases as part of the 2005 round of military base closures.

The Defense Department has indicated that the upcoming round of the base realignment and closure (BRAC) process will put more emphasis on creating multimission, multiservice bases than there has been in previous rounds. Anne Davis, deputy assistant secretary of the Navy for infrastructure and analysis, told Government Executive that over the past decade, the military services have increasingly fought together, but have not yet learned to share infrastructure.

"We probably did not do everything we could have done in prior rounds," said Davis, who helped manage BRAC for the Navy in the early and mid-1990s, and will head the department's efforts in 2005.

In November, the Pentagon issued broad guidelines for the next BRAC that give the Office of the Secretary of Defense a greater role in deciding what bases will be closed and realigned. In the past, the military services have taken the lead in making decisions about the future of bases, often shying away from creating joint bases. But Raymond DuBois, deputy undersecretary of Defense for installations and environment, has said a new generation of joint bases must emerge after BRAC 2005 because they offer more efficient operations at a lower cost.

In a Nov. 25 memorandum, Navy Secretary Gordon England told senior Navy and Marine Corps officials that one of the goals for BRAC 2005 would be "to examine and implement opportunities for greater joint activity." England established two internal Navy organizations to oversee BRAC. An Infrastructure Evaluation Group (IEG), chaired by the assistant secretary of the Navy for installations and environment and including flag and general officers from the Navy and Marine Corps, will make recommendations to close and realign Navy bases. Meanwhile, an Infrastructure Analysis Team, chaired by Davis and staffed by Navy personnel assigned full-time to BRAC, will support the IEG with analysis-including "developing joint and cross-servicing opportunities," England's memo stated.

The Office of the Secretary of Defense will review all the Navy's recommendations, along with those from the other services. By spring 2005, the Pentagon will present those recommendations to a bipartisan BRAC panel, appointed by Congress, that will hold hearings on them come up with a final list by fall for congressional and presidential approval. Lawmakers and the president must then except or reject the list in its entirety.

Davis says it's crucial that the services consider joint basing and communicate with one another early in the BRAC process. "Each of the services had their own little horror stories [in past BRACs] where we didn't realize until literally the recommendations went forward to [the Defense Secretary's office] that we were taking an action someplace that might have an impact on one of the other services and we just didn't know it," she said.

For example, the Navy did not realize the Air Force was consolidating operations at Langley Air Force Base in Southern Virginia, while at the same time the Navy was moving more personnel into neighboring Hampton Roads, Va. "Had we known everyone was piling into the Hampton Roads area we might have considered a couple of other options or alternatives. I don't know that would have changed anything, but we never gave ourselves a chance to have those discussions," Davis said.

Davis said she expects the Pentagon to define "joint basing" within the next year. Currently, she said, the Navy's only joint bases are in its reserve component. The organizations at those sites do not have combined common operations or functions, but only share space, such as runways and office buildings. The next BRAC round could provide the services a chance to decide how to consolidate common functions at joint bases, she said.

In BRAC 1995, the services considered joint basing requirements in five areas-depots, test and evaluation facilities, medical facilities, research laboratories and undergraduate pilot training schools. But few joint bases resulted from the review due to a lack of coordination among the services. However, Davis said, those areas are ripe for review in 2005, but she added the discussion is "wide open" and the Office of the Secretary of Defense will likely come up with other joint basing requirements.