Intelligence facilities included in base closure, consolidation plans
The Defense Department is examining ways to consolidate the nation's intelligence facilities.
Phil Grone, principal assistant deputy undersecretary of Defense for installations and environment, said the military services recently were told to consider combining intelligence facilities as part of an ongoing review of bases to close in 2005. Next year, the Pentagon will recommend shutting down or realigning dozens of military bases.
According to Grone, seven areas are being studied for combining work across the services: industrial, supply and storage facilities, technical, training, headquarters and support activities, medical, and intelligence. Pentagon working groups with representatives from each service were set up to study the first six areas last summer; an intelligence group was created in recent months.
Grone said a key difference between past rounds of military base closures and this one will be a focus on creating joint bases and facilities.
The Pentagon's plan to close more bases in 2005 is not simply a cost-cutting exercise, Grone said, but a part of transforming the military. By having the ideal number of bases, Grone added, the military will better be able to prepare, execute and support its missions worldwide.
Previous Defense reviews found that the Defense Department might have as much as 25 percent excess infrastructure. Grone declined to comment on how many of the department's nearly 400 bases would be closed or realigned or how much money would be saved. In four base closure rounds conducted in the late 1980s and 1990s, shutting down 97 major bases saved $17 billion, and since 2001 base operating costs have fallen by about $7 billion annually.
The ongoing reviews are the latest indication that the Pentagon is moving ahead with plans for the next round of base closures. In the spring of 2005, Defense officials will recommend bases that should be closed or realigned to an independent panel that will make final recommendations to Congress that fall.