CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET OFFICE The Cost of Supporting Military Bases NOVEMBER 2019 At a Glance The Department of Defense operates hundreds of military bases and similar installations that host military units and support their daily operations, provid- ing services such as housing, utilities, and grounds maintenance. This report analyzes the relationship between the cost of those services—also referred to as base operations support (BOS)—and specific characteristics of a base, such as its population and physical size. The key findings of the Congressional Budget Office include the following: • BOS costs are strongly related to the number of a base’s employees and its square footage of building space. • With other base characteristics unchanged, BOS costs associated with an increase in population were lower at larger bases than at smaller bases. For example, in 2016 BOS costs increased by $1,000 for each employee added to bases with 25,000 or more employees, but they increased by $14,000 at bases with 5,000 or fewer employees. That finding implies that it would be more cost-effective to expand the population at larger bases than at smaller ones, everything else being equal. • Other characteristics that affect BOS costs at a base are the branch of service that operates it, the mission of the units that it hosts, its location (inside or outside the United States), and its climate, although the effects of those characteristics are not as significant. www.cbo.gov/publication/55849 Contents Summary 1 What Data Did CBO Use to Analyze the Cost of Base Operations Support? 1 What Did CBO Find? 1 What Are Some Limitations of CBO’s Analysis? 1 BOX 1. WHAT IS BASE OPERATIONS SUPPORT? 2 Background 2 Military Bases 2 DoD’s Budget and Its Spending on Base Operations Support 3 Bases CBO Analyzed 4 How CBO Analyzed Base Operations Support for Each Base 5 Characteristics CBO Analyzed 5 Characteristics CBO Did Not Analyze 7 Data and Sources 7 CBO’s Findings 8 How a Base’s Size Related to Its Support Costs 8 How Additional Personnel and Building Space Correlated With BOS Costs 10 How Other Characteristics Related to BOS Costs 10 Possible Uses of CBO’s Results 12 BOX 2. PERSONNEL AND BUILDING SPACE REQUIREMENTS OF ARMY BRIGADE COMBAT TEAMS 14 Appendix A: CBO’s Statistical Model for Estimating the Costs of Base Operations Support 17 Appendix B: Estimated Change in Base Operations Support When Units Move Inside or Outside the United States 21 List of Tables and Figures 25 About This Document 26 Notes The years referred to in this report are federal fiscal years, which run from October 1 to September 30 and are designated by the calendar year in which they end. All costs are expressed in 2019 dollars and are adjusted for inflation using the Bureau of Economic Analysis’s gross domestic product price index. Numbers in the text, tables, and figures may not add up to totals because of rounding. On the cover: Upper left: Base honor guard airmen stand in front of a B-52 Stratofortress at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam. U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sergeant Bennie J. Davis III. Upper right: The Los Angeles-class fast-attack submarine USS Springfield makes its homecoming arrival at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii. U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Michael Zingaro. Lower right: Marines from Fox Company, 2nd Recruit Training Battalion, march across the parade deck during a graduation ceremony at Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego. Marine Corps photo by Lance Corporal Angelica I. Annastas. Bottom: Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Army Corps of Engineers photo by Jonas N. Jordan. Photo courtesy of the U.S. Army. The Cost of Supporting Military Bases Summary CBO found that, with other characteristics unchanged, The Department of Defense (DoD) operates hundreds of the increase in BOS costs associated with an increase in bases that support the daily operations of units in the Air population was smaller at larger bases than at smaller Force, Army, Marine Corps, and Navy, providing services bases. For example, the average BOS costs associated such as housing, utilities, and grounds maintenance, with adding an employee at extremely large bases much as might be found in a town or city (see Box 1 (25,000 or more employees) were $1,000; the cor- for a more detailed description of those services). In responding increase in BOS costs at very small bases 2016, $25 billion—about 4 percent of DoD’s budget— (5,000 or fewer employees) was $14,000. CBO also was allocated to the costs of such services, called base found that adding 1,000 square feet of building space operations support (BOS). The costs of providing such was, on average, associated with an increase of about support vary between bases, and the factors that affect $4,000 in annual BOS costs, regardless of a base’s size. those costs are not clearly understood. In this report, the Congressional Budget Office explores certain characteris- CBO’s results could be used to anticipate how BOS costs tics of bases, such as their size, geographic location, and would change if units were relocated between bases, the mission of the units they serve, and uses statistical new units were added, or existing units were disbanded. methods to assess the relationship between those charac- Because CBO’s analysis suggests that BOS costs would teristics and BOS costs. increase less if units were added to large bases rather than to smaller ones, relocating units from smaller bases What Data Did CBO Use to Analyze the Cost of Base to larger ones would reduce overall BOS costs in many Operations Support? cases. Conversely, relocating units from larger bases to CBO assembled 2016 data on more than 200 bases smaller ones would generally increase those costs, all (about 90 percent of active-duty bases) in all four other things being equal. (Creating a new unit and add- services. The characteristics CBO measured include the ing it to any base would, of course, increase overall BOS number of full-time DoD employees at a base, its build- costs.) ing space, and its land area. Other characteristics CBO considered include the base’s location (in the United What Are Some Limitations of CBO’s Analysis? States or overseas), the branch of service running it, the CBO’s analysis did not account for all base character- primary mission of the units it hosts, whether it hosts istics that were potentially relevant because sufficient a significant number of transient personnel, the local data for some characteristics were not available or were climate, and the local cost of living. difficult to measure. The omitted characteristics include the number of family members on the base; the age of What Did CBO Find? buildings and other infrastructure; the number and type After analyzing all of the characteristics it identified, of BOS services; the intensity of operations (intensity CBO found five that were clearly connected to a base’s is higher, for example, when units are mobilizing for BOS costs: its size, primary mission, branch of service, deployment); the portion of building space used for location, and the climate extremes that it experiences family housing (the cost to operate and maintain family (including precipitation and temperature). Of the five housing is funded through a separate appropriation); and characteristics, the one most strongly related to BOS the quality or standard of BOS services (higher standards costs is size, in terms of both the number of employees are expected to cost more). and the amount of building space a base has. 2 THE COST OF SUPPORTING MILITARY BASES NOVEMBER 2019 Box 1 . What Is Base Operations Support? Military bases and similar installations are an important part of ■ Mission Support. To support the operations of military the support infrastructure that enables combat and noncombat units they host, bases operate airfields, ports, and train- units to prepare for their missions. Although their physical ing ranges and provide other support to transient military size depends on the needs of the units they host, most bases aircraft and air crews. provide similar basic services, referred to as base operations ■ Administrative Services. This category of services sup- support (BOS). BOS services are funded through the Depart- ports the staff and personnel management of the hosted ment of Defense’s operation and maintenance appropriation. military units and other organizations on the base. Such BOS services support troops in a number of ways: services include public affairs, financial management, legal, contracting, and other administrative services. ■ Facility Services. Services include those a city might provide to its citizens, such as operations and maintenance ■ Other Support. Other services support workforce produc- of utility and sanitation systems, equipment maintenance, tivity, the distribution of goods and personnel, and security. fire protection, crash rescue, custodial services, refuse Such services include information technology, communi- collection and disposal, snow removal, street sweeping, cations (such as telephone service), and logistics (supply grounds maintenance, and insect control. BOS services in operations and shuttle buses, for example). this category also include engineering services, leases of Long-term capital expenditures to sustain, restore, and mod- real property, security such as physical barriers and police ernize facilities at bases are not included in BOS costs and are services, environmental conservation, and pollution preven- funded through a separate budget account. In addition, units’ tion programs. direct costs, such as the pay of military personnel and the ■ Personnel Support. These services support the daily life operation and maintenance of their weapon systems, are not of service members and their families. They include dining included in BOS costs.