Note from MRE: In planning coverage of the 2005 round of military base realignment and closing, it is important to recognize that the base or bases in your area will be competing for the most part against similar categories of bases nationwide, predominantly those within the specific military service involved. That is, an Army depot will in all probability be judged against other Army depots, while naval shipyards will compete against other naval shipyards (although in the case of Navy and Marine Corps aviation, it is likely that air stations from the two services will be assessed as a single group, given ongoing studies by the Navy Department to merge the shore facilities used by the two aviation branches).

The Defense Department in a March 2004 report formally identified installation categories for each service as provided here. This memorandum will serve as a tool for identifying the "BRAC competitors" that most likely DoD and the BRAC Commission will assess along with specific bases in your coverage area. The following are excerpts from the document, "Report Required by Section 2912 of the Defense Base Closure and Realignment Act of 1990, as amended through the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2003." For details of the calculations of installation excess capacity, see the report's Chapter 6, pages 43-53 including breakdown tables.

Excess Installation Capacity - Results for All DoD

DoD developed an estimate of excess capacity for each military department, DLA and all of DoD by weighting the individual category excess figures by the number of bases in each category, comparing 1989 capacity with projected capacity estimates for the year 2009. The table below shows the Department's current estimated percentages of excess capacity for each military department and Defense Logistics Agency.

Estimated Percentage of Excess Capacity

Department Estimated Percentage of Excess Capacity (above 1989 baseline)

Army: 29
Navy: 21
Air Force: 24
DLA: 17

The DoD has also projected estimated excess capacity for each category of military bases and installations as shown below. The results reported indicate significant excess capacity in about three-quarters of all the categories, and should serve as a harbinger of the likelihood that bases in those high-excess categories will be the targets of closure or realignment.

DoD officials caution that the analytical approach used to determine excess capacity does not take into account other real property sited on smaller installations, assets that are more accurately reflected in the detailed infrastructure inventory report posted at the BRAC website under DoD's "owned" and "leased" facilities. Likewise, the methodology does not consider possible infrastructure efficiencies to be achieved through joint basing and other "transformational" approaches. However, these factors tend to further increase the conservative nature of this report's estimate of excess capacity, DoD notes.

Ultimately, specific BRAC recommendations rely upon certified data regarding specific base capacity, the unique infrastructure requirements of specific force elements or military functions, and the application of selection criteria that weigh heavily the military value of each installation considered for closure or realignment.

The DoD analysis determines the excess, as a percentage of 2009 capacity, by dividing this increase in excess capacity by the amount of capacity that will exist in 2009. For those base categories where the change in capacity relative to force structure since 1989 is negative, "no increase" is noted.

MRE has inserted the projected excess capacity by installation category in boldface type. This will provide an unofficial indication of where the most likely recommendations for closure or base realignment will occur in the 2005 BRAC round.

Department of the Army

The Army's force structure is composed of heavy, light, airborne, and air assault divisions and multifunctional divisions in the National Guard. Divisions are composed of maneuver brigades, other combat formations, and a variety of combat support, service, and administrative elements. The Army identified eight categories of supporting installation infrastructure key to assessing its ability to support its forces. These are: Maneuver, Major Training Active, Major Training Reserve, Schools, Depots, Industrial, Test and Evaluation/Labs, and Administration.

Description of Army Installation Categories

1. Administration. This category includes active component installations that support headquarters or administrative organizations stationed there or to provide base operations, family housing, and other support to units in the region. 14 percent excess.

2. Depots. This category includes installations that support the full range of Army depot maintenance activities from tanks to electronics. No increase.

3. Industrial. This category includes installations that support a broad range of industrial functions, including ammunition production, weapons systems component production or assembly, and transshipment of units and materiel. 43 percent excess.

4. Major Training Areas - U.S. Army Reserves. This category includes installations that are owned and managed by the United States Army Reserve primarily to support unit and individual training for the Reserve, and similar training for the National Guard as necessary. They do not support active component training. 50 percent excess.

5. Major Training Areas - Active. This category includes installations that are owned by the active component and support unit level training that cannot be accomplished at home station. No increase.

6. Maneuver. This category includes installations that support Army fighting forces. Divisions, brigades, and associated tactical units are the primary tenants of these Installations (MRE note: This report did not address DoD plans announced in the summer of 2004 to move four Germany-based Army divisions and most of the Korea-based 2nd Infantry Division to bases in the continental United States, which will likely ameliorate against shutting down many bases in this category.) 19 percent excess.

7. Schools. This category includes installations that have as their primary mission support to institutional training. The type of school ranges from the United States Military Academy and initial entry training, to branch schools and professional military education. 36 percent excess.

8. Test & Evaluation and Labs. This category includes installations that support a range of research, development, and test and evaluation, such as basic research, research and development engineering, or test and evaluation. 62 percent excess.

Department of the Navy

The basic warfighting elements of the Navy are surface combatants (battle force ships and aircraft carriers) with their Active and Reserve air wings and submarines. For the Marine Corps, the principal fighting element is the division, both Active and Reserve.

The Navy and Marine Corps identified fourteen categories of supporting infrastructure key to assessing their ability to support naval and marine forces: Naval Bases, Marine Corps Bases, Marine Corps Administrative Activities, Air Stations, Ordnance Stations, Supply Installations, Aviation Depots, Marine Corps Logistics Bases, Shipyards, Test and Evaluation Facilities and Labs, Training Air Stations, Training Installations, Construction Battalion Centers, and Navy Inventory Control Points.

Description of Navy and Marine Corps Installation Categories

1. Naval Bases. This category includes those activities that have a principal mission to support, maintain, and train Navy ships and assigned crews. 33 percent excess.

2. Marine Corps Bases. This category includes those activities whose primary mission is to house, support, and provide training areas for operating forces of the Fleet Marine Force. 22 percent excess.

3. Administrative Activities (USMC). This category includes installations whose primary mission is to provide administrative support to other operational units. 37 percent excess.

4. Air Stations. This category includes those activities that have a principal mission to homeport, support, provide training facilities, and operate a base from which operational and training missions can be flown by Navy and Marine Corps aircraft squadrons. 20 percent excess.

5. Ordnance. This category includes those activities that provide secure storage for the full range of naval ordnance, support the safe receipt of that ordnance from other activities and the delivery of that ordnance to fleet units, and perform maintenance and inspection functions on ordnance. 45 percent excess.

6. Supply. This category includes those activities providing consolidated supply services and logistics support of afloat and ashore operating forces and industrial activities. 38 percent excess.

7. Naval Aviation Depots. This category includes those activities that perform depot maintenance and repair across all aviation component mission areas. 1 percent excess.

8. Marine Corps Logistics Bases. This category includes those activities that provide the full range of depot and intermediate maintenance support for Marine Corps amphibious and ground equipment to the Atlantic and Pacific Fleet Marine Forces. 1 percent excess.

9. Shipyards. This category includes those activities that function to satisfy the major maintenance and overhaul requirements of the operating fleet and to provide depot level emergent and voyage repair to those ships. (MRE Note: This applies only to government-owned naval shipyards and not privately owned and managed shipyards that engage in ship construction and overhauls.) No increase.

10. Test & Evaluation and Labs. This category includes those activities responsible for maintaining a technological advantage against the threat, for rapid crisis response, and for maintaining unique facilities, capabilities, and corporate knowledge required for national security. No increase.

11. Training Air Stations. This category includes those Navy activities that have undergraduate pilot training (UPT) as their primary mission. UPT refers to the flight training student pilots and naval flight officers undergo to earn their wings before being assigned to fleet replacement squadrons. 20 percent increase.

12. Training. This category includes those activities that provide professional training, from recruit training to postgraduate degree programs for all levels of enlisted and officer personnel. 18 percent excess.

13. Construction Battalion Centers. This category includes activities whose principal mission is to homeport, support, and deploy the naval construction force and the reserve construction force. No increase.

14. Navy Inventory Control Points. This category includes activities that provide worldwide wholesale inventory control for all naval fleet units and program logistics support for naval weapons systems. 60 percent excess.

Department of the Air Force

The U.S. Air Force structure is composed of Air and Space Expeditionary Forces (AEFs). Each provides air and space capabilities and is made up of fighters and long-range strike aircraft assigned to Active and Reserve units. The Air Force identified nine categories of supporting infrastructure key to assessing its ability to support its current force structure. These are Administrative, Air Force Reserve, Air National Guard, Depots, Education and Training, Missile and Large Aircraft, Small Aircraft, Space Operations, Product Centers, Labs, and Test and Evaluation.

Description of Air Force Categories

1. Administrative. This category includes installations that primarily provide administrative support activities for the Air Force or DoD. 31 percent excess.

2. Air Force Reserve. This category consists of Air Force Reserve Command (AFRC) major installations at which an AFRC operational wing is based and the Air Force has real property responsibility for the entire airfield. 36 percent excess.

3. Air National Guard. This category consists of Air National Guard (ANG) major installations at which an ANG wing is based and the Air Force has real property responsibility for the entire airfield. 34 percent excess.

4. Depots. This category includes those installations that conduct depot level maintenance, which includes software maintenance performed at the depot level. No increase.

5. Education & Training. This category consists of all installations that conduct formal education and training, such as basic military training, professional military education, undergraduate and advanced pilot training, navigator training, operational training at technical schools, and foreign student pilot training. 12 percent excess (parking apron space); 45 percent (classroom space).

6. Missiles & Large Aircraft. This category includes all active installations with assigned operational wings and large primary mission aircraft, such as tankers, bombers, and airlift aircraft, except Hickam and Anderson Air Force Bases, which are throughput installations. 27 percent excess.

7. Small Aircraft. This category includes those installations with assigned operational wings and small primary mission aircraft such as fighters and some reconnaissance aircraft. 16 percent excess.

8. Space Operations. This category includes those installations involved in space launch operations and space operations management. 35 percent excess.

9. Product Centers, Labs and Test & Evaluation. Product Centers are installations responsible for developing, acquiring, and in-service engineering of weapon systems. They provide resources and acquisition expertise to support program execution. Laboratories are installations that perform discovery, development, and transition of affordable, integrated technologies. Test and Evaluation installations provide ground and open-air ranges, facilities, and chambers to support the testing of manned and unmanned aerospace vehicles; conduct flight evaluation and recovery of research vehicles; and conduct ground test, evaluation, and simulation of products and services. 18 percent excess.

Defense Logistics Agency

DLA provides support to all the military departments and is not separately identified in the Force Structure Plan. DLA identified two categories of infrastructure key to assessing its ability to support the military departments: Distribution Depots and Supply Centers.

Description of Defense Logistics Agency Installation Categories

1. Distribution Depots. This category includes installations that receive, store, and issue wholesale and retail (Service-owned) materiel in support of the Armed Forces worldwide. 20 percent excess

2. Supply Centers. This category includes installations that manage and procure consumable items of supply in support of the military services' missions. No increase.

* Source: Report Required by Section 2912 of the Defense Base Closure and Realignment Act of 1990, as amended through the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2003, Page 54.

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