‘Yesterday’s facilities,’ unstable workforce among base commanders’ worries
From sinkholes to policing shortages, military leaders laid out their concerns at a Maryland-wide conference.
Chris Teale | June 18, 2025
BALTIMORE—Some military bases and installations are hundreds of years old, badly in need of maintenance or perhaps simply retirement. Others lack power and water that could be relied upon in wartime, or broadband and other digital infrastructure to meet today’s needs.
“Essentially, we’re fighting tomorrow’s wars with yesterday’s facilities, and we need to fix that,” Brig. Gen. Andrew W. Collins, assistant adjutant general of the Maryland Army National Guard, said Tuesday at the Maryland Defense Forum.
Collins joined other Maryland commanders in laying out their concerns at the two-day event, hosted by the state’s government to bring leaders from installations, defense communities and defense-related industries.
It’s a similar story at the U.S. Coast Guard Yard on Curtis Bay, which provides shipyard services for the Coast Guard fleet and others, but lacks the space for larger ships, including the new generation of cutters. Capt. Emily Tharp, the yard’s commanding officer, said there are other pressing challenges too. A sinkhole opened in the facility, she said, trapping a tractor-trailer that was delivering a new engine for a cutter in the maintenance shop. It also has caused bottlenecks as vehicles and workers must navigate it, and the yard lacks the money to fix it fully.
https://www.defenseone.com/threats/2025/06/yesterdays-facilities-unstable-workforce-among-base-commanders-worries/406169/?oref=d1-featured-river-secondary
