Downsizing the Department of Defense
Saving defense dollars should be a bipartisan concern
By Frederico Bartels -
Tuesday, May 24, 2022
OPINION:
One way that many families deal with increased costs is by downsizing, especially when they become “empty-nesters.” Downsizing makes even more sense when your family hasn’t used that spare bedroom in a long time. The Defense Department has lots of “spare bedrooms” they are not using and cost big money to maintain.
Since 2016, the department has told us they have at least 15% excess military infrastructure. At least three different studies have highlighted the excess and estimate the Pentagon could save about $2 billion dollars a year if allowed to trim its excess properties through the process called base realignment and closure (BRAC).
Those annual $2 billion would be more than enough to cover all the Air Force proposed aircraft divestments for this year, which total 102 aircraft and $1.6 billion. Or they could be used to expand the Navy’s inventories of Standard Missile 6 (one of their core missile systems) and long-range anti-ship missiles, which top their unfunded priorities list.
Under both the Obama and Trump administrations, the Pentagon asked Congress for authorization to conduct a round of BRAC. Congress consistently rebuffed those requests, and so, frustrated, the Pentagon simply gave up asking. The need did not go away, but the Pentagon’s enthusiasm did.
https://m.washingtontimes.com/news/2022/may/24/downsizing-the-department-of-defense/
