Department of Defense

ABSTRACT

Joint Basing is in its infancy. Although BRAC has had multiple editions, we are only now experiencing the first edition of Joint Basing. What comes next? The premise of this paper is that there DoD will be more robust in moving out on the Joint Basing concept. In an effort to free resources and reduce duplication, DoD will need to stand up an agency that takes on Command, Operations, and Facilities roles under one installation management agency. These functions, dollars, and manning will be reassigned from the Services to the DoD Agency, similar to the way that the Medical and Logistics functions are moving to a joint concept that is manned by all of the Services.

Under the Joint Basing construct today, the mission of Command, Operations, Facilities, and in many cases supply (or logistics) falls to one Military Service in a geographic area, and another Military Service in a different geographic area. Time and joint basing lessons learned will bring DoD and the Military Departments to the conclusion that the Joint Base concept will need to be standardized. DoD should initiate a pro-active strategic approach to this complex and controversial issue.

JOINT BASING II - WHAT COMES NEXT

The U.S. Department of Defense is the largest organization in the world. It executes a budget more than twice that of the world's largest corporation, has more personnel than the populations of a third of the world's countries, and provides medical care for as many patients as the largest health management organization. The size and complexity of the Department's business operations and the rapid pace of change in the business environment, set against the backdrop of two major campaigns and worldwide economic uncertainty, make it imperative that we create more agile, responsive, and efficient business operations.

—William J. Lynn III

DoD 2009 Strategic Management Plan

Following passage of the 1986 Goldwater-Nichols Defense Reorganization Act the Department of Defense(DoD) has sought to create a more unified military establishment. Many DoD functions and operations have been streamlined and combined into overarching agencies - creating joint or purple enterprises. This SRP proposes that the next major purple initiative will be the creation of a common military base construct that encompasses DoD forts, posts, bases, stations, ports, and shipyards worldwide. DoD controls approximately 5,500 sites, totaling approximately 32 million acres, with 570,000 structures valued at $710 billion, consuming $55 billion dollars per year. This enterprise will be managed by a new Defense Agency, conceptually a Defense Installation Management Agency (DIMA) operating under the purview of Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Installations and Environment (DUSD (I&E)) within the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics (USD(AT&L)) organization (Figure 1, 2, 3) AT&L org chart. . There are a significant number of duplications, many caused by current stovepiped operations Gradually reducing these duplications over time, with a goal of a modest 1% per year reduction over 10 years would equate to a significant business improvement to the taxpayers. With the current politicical and economic landscape it is very ...