Public-Private Partnerships

The U.S. Department of Defense and the U.K. Ministry of Defence face a common challenge: to modernize their forces to meet changing military threats under reduced budgets. To meet this challenge, both organizations are increasingly interested in leveraging private sector capital and expertise to provide defense activities and support services. While both countries have reduced their force structures and defense spending substantially since the end of the Cold War, the United Kingdom has been more aggressive in pursuing such private sector involvement. As the U.S. Army seeks to improve the performance and reduce the cost of support services, one essential tool will be the greater use of private sector capabilities and resources. This document is a summary of a three day conference on privatizing military installation assets, operations, and services held atDitchley Park in Oxfordshire, England, on April 14-16, 2000. The conference was organized by the Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Army for Installations and Environment. It brought together U.S. and U.K. defense officials, U.S. Army leaders, and commercial contractors from both countries to discuss the British experience with privatization and explore itsapplicability to the U.S. Army. Much of the conference work explored the potential for privatization in three functional areas: housing and other base facilities, base operations and services, and logistics.