GAO: Brigades in Europe cost billions - Army News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Army Times

GAO: Brigades in Europe cost billions

The Army can expect to be hit with a bill of up to $2 billion in extra costs over the next 10 years should it decide to retain four, rather than two, combat brigades in Europe, according to the Government Accountability Office.

The GAO report, issued Sept. 13, comes two months in advance of a NATO summit in Lisbon, Portugal, and an assessment of a U.S. Army Europe basing plan proposed by the Pentagon in February as part of the 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review.

The QDR proposal calls for four units to stay in Europe for the long term: The 170th and 172nd Infantry Brigade Combat Teams and the 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team would remain in Germany; the fourth unit, the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team, would remain in northern Italy.

Recommendations from senior U.S. commanders prompted the QDR plan, citing a changing security dynamic in Europe and a requirement to train and work with NATO allies, many of them former Warsaw Pact members.

Until 2007, the Army was conducting a phased drawdown in Europe to reduce the number of soldiers in its largest overseas command from 62,000 to 28,000, while reducing the number of brigade combat teams from four to two.

For the past three years, the drawdown essentially has been on hold at 40,000 soldiers, although many troops have been consolidated into “enduring communities” in Germany (Wiesbaden, Baumholder, Kaiserslautern, Stuttgart, Ansbach, Grafenwoehr/Vilseck/Hohenfels) and Vicenza, Italy.

Before the drawdown was halted, planning officials expected the force structure cuts would save billions in overseas stationing costs and allow installations at Bamberg and Schweinfurt, both in Germany, to close.

The units originally slated for return to the U.S. are now flagged the 170th and 172nd Infantry Brigades, based at Baumholder and Grafenwoehr.

Should the U.S. and its NATO allies decide to keep these brigades in Germany, the Army will need to seek funding of nearly $180 million annually beginning in 2013 to support the military communities of Bamberg and Schweinfurt, according to GAO.

Army studies also indicate it will cost the service $1 billion to $2 billion in added basing costs to keep the 170th and 172nd brigades in Europe over the next decade, researchers reported.

Another project designed to save hundreds of millions of dollars over the long term was the planned relocation of USAREUR and 7th Army headquarters from Heidelberg, Germany, to Wiesbaden.

Originally slated for completion in 2013, that project has been delayed for at least two years and will require $150 million a year in additional funding to support continued operations in Heidelberg.

GAO investigators were highly critical of the decision to move the headquarters, well established in Heidelberg since the end of World War II, claiming it was “poorly documented, limited in scope and based on questionable assumptions.”

USAREUR officials said the headquarters complex being built at Wiesbaden, currently home to 1st Armored Division headquarters, will serve as a command-and-control facility for theater operations.

The community already has its own airfield, and unlike facilities in Heidelberg, which are in the midst of a large city, the new headquarters will be outside the city in an area more easily secured.

During the past five years, the Army has spent about $1.3 billion on facility upgrades to support the consolidation of forces into the enduring communities.

Included in the outlay have been $473 million for barracks and other facilities at Grafenwoehr, and $424 million in and around Vicenza to support the consolidation of the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team in northern Italy.

While not an Army program, the Defense Department’s Tricare Management Activity will replace its regional medical center at Landstuhl and a medical clinic at Ramstein Air Base with a consolidated medical center adjacent to the air base near Kaiserslautern, the Army’s logistics hub in Europe.

At a cost of $1.2 billion, the planned facility will serve a population of 40,000 service members, and 245,000 beneficiaries in U.S. European Command.

DISCUSS: COST OF BRIGADES IN EUROPE