Base Closing Process Stirs to Life

The Defense Department has started the 2005 base closing process in motion by requiring installations to submit certain information to the Pentagon that will be used as the basis for DoD’s recommendations for which facilities to close, keep open or realign. Those recommendations will be passed on no later than May 2005 to a special commission that will craft the final package. DoD officials have said that despite prior rounds of closings, the department still has excess capacity of 20-25 percent-although that doesn’t necessarily mean that a similar percentage of facilities would be targeted. Meanwhile, DoD has published draft criteria to use when examining whether to keep a base open or close it, with an emphasis on examining the base’s role in warfighting, training, and readiness, the ability to accommodate contingency, mobilization, and future total force requirements, the cost of operations and manpower implications, the extent and timing of potential costs and savings, the economic impact on the local community, and the environmental impact.