Military Base Realignments and Closures: Plan Needed to Monitor Challenges for Completing More than 100 Armed Forces Reserve Centers

摘要

The Army is implementing 44 base realignment and closure (BRAC) recommendations to construct 125 new Armed Forces Reserve Centers (AFRC) and close 387 existing reserve components facilities. The Department of Defense (DOD) expects the new AFRCs to increase recruiting and retention and create greater efficiencies by fostering jointness and consolidating functions. GAO (1) assessed the extent DOD's cost and savings estimates to implement the recommendations have changed from BRAC Commission projections and (2) determined the extent the Army has identified potential challenges that could affect BRAC implementation and has developed a plan to address these challenges. GAO analyzed DOD's publicly available BRAC budget data and interviewed officials at Army offices, including Reserve Command, National Guard Bureau, and the National Guard in five states. This report, prepared under the Comptroller General's authority to initiate evaluations, is one of a series related to the BRAC 2005 round. Since the BRAC Commission issued its projections in 2005, DOD's cost estimates for implementing the reserve component recommendations have increased at the same time savings estimates have decreased. Implementation cost estimates increased from $2.9 billion to $3.2 billion--a 13 percent or $363 million increase in constant dollars--mostly due to higher military construction cost estimates.