The Army said has about 2 million square feet of excess space and about the same amount of shortages but can’t simply shift things around. Image: Frontpage/Shutterstock.com
The Defense Department recently told Congress that it has a mix of excess space and space shortages but there is no way to exactly quantify its situation due to the way the information was presented, says a report to Congress.
A Congressional Research Service on DoD space needs includes a summary of a briefing ordered by a spending bill, the latest of several required since the last DoD base closings initiative 20 years ago. Like the prior one in 2020, “this briefing did not include overarching percentages for the amount of excess capacity,” it said.
“The briefing provided for each service a detailed list of categories of military facilities, which included, for example, dining facilities, enlisted unaccompanied housing, or vehicle maintenance shops. For each category, the services provided data on the extent the service may have an excess (or a deficit) in capacity. The briefing stated that some installations may have both excess capacity for certain types of facilities and deficits in capacity for other types of facilities,” it said.
The Army for example said has about 2 million square feet of excess space and about the same amount of shortages, it said, but functions can’t simply be shifted to even it out. It cited Army brigade command headquarters facilities where there are both excesses and shortages, “but the extra space is not located in the right place to meet those needs.”
The report said the briefing also included information on efforts to reduce and consolidate infrastructure, which “rely on a combination of consolidation, demolition, and, when services assess appropriate, new construction. The Army and the Air Force both reported policies that require “one-for-one” offsets that align new construction with demolition or disposal plans to reduce long-term growth of infrastructure.”
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