Military Buildup on Guam: Costs and Challenges in Meeting Construction Timelines

In 2004, the bilateral U.S. and Japanese Security Consultative Committee began a series of sustained security consultations to strengthen the U.S.-Japan security alliance by establishing a framework for the future of the U.S. force structure in Japan. The United States and Japan agreed to reduce the U.S. force structure in Japan while maintaining the U.S. force presence in the Pacific theater by relocating units to other areas, including Guam. As part of this effort, called the Defense Policy Review Initiative, about 8,600 Marines and 9,000 dependents were to move from Okinawa, Japan, to Guam by a projected date of 2014, as described in the bilateral agreement. On June 21, 2011, however, United States and Government of Japan officials noted that completion of the Marine relocation will not meet the previously targeted date of 2014, but confirmed their commitment to complete the relocation at the earliest possible date after 2014. 2 The Department of Defense (DOD) also plans to move other military forces and equipment to Guam on different schedules in implementing a new strategic approach in the Pacific as part of its worldwide Integrated Global Presence and Basing Strategy. These latter initiatives involve each of the military services and the Army National Guard working concurrently to complete infrastructure projects to support Guam-based U.S. forces and their dependents. If the initiatives are implemented as planned, the Guam-based DOD population would grow from about 15,000 in 2007 to about 39,000 by 2020. As you requested, we evaluated issues surrounding DOD's military buildup on Guam. Specifically, we (1) examined the estimated military construction costs for the buildup and determined whether bid savings3 existed for military construction projects in fiscal years 2009 and 2010, and (2) assessed certain challenges that DOD faces related to the buildup.