Ensuring That Army Infrastructure Meets Strategic Needs

U.S. national security strategy has changed since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001; the Army must adapt to these changes to meet current and future strategic requirements. This documented briefing describes the results of a study that examined U.S. national-level strategic documents and Department of Defense and Army strategic plans and initiatives to identify issues affecting the Army's infrastructure needs. The authors then reviewed DoD and Army installation plans to determine how well these strategic issues are currently being addressed. Where gaps exist, Pint et al. identify areas that should be included in strategic planning activities. These areas include deployment infrastructure; training capacity needed to support restationing, joint training, and the introduction of new technology; hedging against long-term risk and uncertainty; using public/private and Army/community partnerships to increase investment in family and community services; sustainability of land use; and innovative approaches to relieve environmental pressures on Army installations. Finally, the authors discuss the types of data that would be needed for more in-depth infrastructure analysis, whether these data are currently available, and how they might be collected.