Budget-strapped, the Army hopes to save money by shifting more of its non-core operations to commercial providers, senior Army leaders said at an Association of the United States Army Contemporary Military Forum.Encouraged by savings it has realized by turning housing and lodging over to private companies on many bases, the Army now seeks partnerships with private firms for tasks ranging from operating arsenals and depots to generating electricity."For the Army to succeed in this [budget] climate, we need to focus on what we do best – our core competencies," Kathleen Hammack, the Army’s assistant secretary for installations, energy and environment, said.The core competencies are those that involve warfighting, Hammack said in an address at the AUSA Annual Meeting and Exposition.And, divesting of non-core tasks to private operators through public-private partnerships will enable the Army to focus its dwindling resources on warfighting.The Army also needs to shed surplus infrastructure by closing more bases, Hammack said.Smaller budgets will mean a smaller Army that requires fewer bases. Overseas, as the Army’s presence has declined, it has been able to reduce its infrastructure, but that’s not so easy in the United States."In order to reduce infrastructure in line with force structure, we need BRAC (base realignment and closure) authorization from Congress," Hammack said."If under-utilized bases are forced to stay open, we will be devoting resources from critical readiness programs into base operations. We must manage our infrastructure in line with our resources," she said.But getting Congress to permit base closing is politically difficult – bases create jobs and economic support for the communities where they are located."BRAC is going to be very, very important," Herman Bulls, international director of the real estate services firm Jones Lang LaSalle, said.The Army can save significant amounts of money if it can get past the congressional parochialism of "not in my back yard."Other cost-saving initiatives may be more doable.Arsenals, where the Army designs new weapons, and depots, where it maintains current ones, offer "great opportunities for partnerships," Lt. Gen. Raymond Mason, the deputy chief of staff for logistics, said.The Army is also pursuing partnerships with private firms to develop renewable energy production facilities on bases to bolster energy security, Hammack said.And more bases will be seeking cost-saving partnerships with local communities to purchase municipal services from water to waste water treatment to library services, said Lt. Gen. Michael Ferriter, assistant chief of staff for installation management and chief of the Installation Management Command.Partnerships are also beginning to offer the Army opportunities to provide services – for a fee – to the private sector.At Yuma Proving Ground, the Army is leasing 2,400 acres to General Motors for use as a desert testing facility for all types of GM vehicles.As part of the deal, the Army gets to test its vehicles there, too, said Lt. Gen. Thomas Bostick, chief of the Army Corps of Engineers.Similar future opportunities abound, said Bulls, the real estate executive. The Army could profit from making "the highest and best use" of its property, perhaps by opening facilities to commercial uses such as retail stores, he said.The Army’s biggest privatization successes so far have been in housing, where private firms provide 86,000 housing units at 44 installations.That housing "is far better" than the Army alone could afford to provide, said Ferriter.It has cost the Army $1.4 billion, but bought housing worth $13.2 billion, he said.The Army hopes to expand on that model. "There are dozens and dozens of opportunities that we are looking at all the time to see where partnerships are feasible," Ferriter said.