New competition for HAFB

WASHINGTON — Unlike past base-closure rounds, Utah's Hill Air Force base will compete for survival next year not only against sister Air Force installations but also against similar repair-and-maintenance depot bases operated by the Army and Navy.

Pentagon officials made that clear Thursday as they outlined some new Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) strategies to the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Military Construction.

Deputy Undersecretary of Defense Raymond F. DuBois noted that in previous closure rounds, bases of each separate military branch generally competed only with each other, not those operated by other branches.

However, he said the military now believes more strongly in "enhancing the joint utilization of our infrastructure," and that "a strengthened joint analytical process is necessary to utilize the full potential of BRAC."

So he said Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld ordered "that the analysis of common, business-oriented support functions will be conducted by joint cross-service groups." Teams of officers of the Army, Air Force, Navy and Marines will look together at how missions and bases may be combined across service lines.

DuBois said seven broad areas have been identified for cross-service analysis: education and training, headquarters and support activities, industrial, intelligence, medical, supply and storage, and technical.

Hill houses one of the Air Force's three remaining huge "air logistics centers," which handle repair, maintenance and procurement operations. Two such sister centers were closed in the last round. The Navy has three logistics centers now, and the Army has two — and numerous smaller bases carry out some portion of such functions.

Hill also houses fighter wings and oversees operation of the Utah Test and Training Range in the west desert. The base is Utah's largest employer.

DuBois vowed that the BRAC process will look at all bases fairly without bias and will consider "military worth" as the key criterion as to which will survive. Rumsfeld has said that up to a quarter of current bases could be closed to save money.

DuBois said the Pentagon spent $22 million in the four previous rounds to close 152 major bases and 235 smaller installations but saved $39 billion through fiscal 2001. He said recurring savings after that are about $7 billion a year.

Much of the closure costs have gone toward environmental cleanup of old bases. DuBois said 78 percent of bases closed so far have completed all environmental cleanup.