Taking Stock of the Army's Base Realignment and Closure Selection Process

The Army has been doing its part to help downsize the defense establishment, closing 23 major installations in the four rounds of base closures and realignments, closing many more minor installations, and realigning others. Nevertheless, many believe that excess installation capacity remains, so more rounds are sure to come. The Army's process for selecting installations has received the most praise among those of the military departments, but it can be improved. Some of the important steps in an improved process might include inventorying assets at all installations; estimating future requirements; being explicit about uncertainties and considering long-term trends; developing alternative ways to allocate the requirements to specific assets; for all these alternatives, estimating the costs both of individual transactions and of entire alternative packages; and taking into consideration such externalities as political, environmental, community influences. In all this, it is important to keep in mind that the current use of a given installation may not be the best use. The objective is a set of creative, cost-effective, politically viable closure options.