March 23, 2017

The Army faces a $72 billion problem with failed or failing installations that poses a critical risk to readiness and morale, senior officials said at a forum sponsored by the Association of the U.S. Army’s Institute of Land Warfare.

"We have been on a failed funding strategy, resource strategy, with our installations and facilities," said J. Randall Robinson, acting assistant Army secretary for installations, energy and environment.

“This has had a corrosive impact on our installations,” Robinson said at a one-day Hot Topic forum at AUSA’s Conference and Event Center in Arlington, Va. “This is a reality that gets worse and worse every year.”

Robinson and Lt. Gen. Gwen Bingham, the assistant Army chief of staff for installation management, said the Army needs $10.8 billion to improve the condition of 22 percent of the infrastructure that is in poor or failing condition, and additionally needs to spend $10.2 billion a year for six consecutive years to restore the condition of other facilities.

Realistically, that isn’t going to happen. While Robinson and Bingham talked of efforts to make installations more efficient and to build more multipurpose structures than can be easily modified when missions change, they also don’t expect to see $72 billion allocated to fix what’s wrong.

Robinson said he did not expect to see additional money for installations “in the immediate future,” although he and Bingham talked about changing how installations are budgeted, managed and resourced in a process that could take 10 years to complete. Bingham said the Army needs “a bold shift” in installation management planning.

An earlier version of this story had an incorrect total for the cost of improving infrastructure.