Costs Of Moving School To Fort Sill Higher Than Expected

OKLAHOMA CITY, OK.(AP) – Moving the Air Defense Artillery school from Fort Bliss, Texas, to Fort Sill will cost nearly $80 million more than expected, according to a new government report that says the 2005 base closure round will save far less than projected.

The Government Accountability Office, Congress’ auditing arm, says the 2005 round of closures will be more expensive than expected and won’t yield any savings until after 2017, The Oklahoman reported Thursday from its Washington bureau.

Ultimately, the round will save the Pentagon about $15 billion by 2025, far less than the $36 billion estimated, the office said.

Members of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Readiness expressed disappointment Wednesday that the pain to many communities resulting from the largest-ever round of base closures wasn’t going to result in the kind of savings the Pentagon and the Base Realignment and Closure Commission had projected.

Rep. Solomon Ortiz, D-Texas, the chairman of the subcommittee, said the base realignment and closure process, often referred to as BRAC, was flawed in 2005.

“It did not obtain realistic data upon which to base sound business decisions and it was again tainted by politics that were supposed to be removed,” Ortiz said.

“After reading the GAO’s report, I was initially pleased to see that over 20 years, the (Defense) Department expects to save $15 billion. However, I was surprised to find out that this is a 58 percent decrease from what the BRAC commission estimated.”

Philip Grone, deputy undersecretary of defense for installations and environment, told the subcommittee that inflation had already caused an increase of $2 billion in construction costs around the country.

Closing bases and shifting missions around typically requires large upfront costs, much of it related to new construction at bases that are receiving more troops and activities. Fort Sill, an artillery training post in southwestern Oklahoma, has embarked on a massive construction project to absorb the Air Defense Artillery training school and center moving from Fort Bliss.

The air defense artillery school is being combined with the field artillery school already at the post. That recommendation was approved by the BRAC commission, along with a separate recommendation to move an Air Defense Artillery brigade from Fort Bliss to Fort Sill.

The moves could add as many as 10,000 active duty personnel, students and family members at the post. Army budget documents reviewed by The Oklahoman earlier this year showed an estimated $400 million in construction would be necessary to move the school and the brigade.

Costs for moving the brigade alone were estimated at $156 million. The new report from the accountability office mentioned only the movement of the school and said its costs had risen 32 percent, from $247 million to $326 million.

Earlier this year, the accountability office reported that the reorganization of the Air National Guard would ultimately cost the Pentagon about $53 million a year, rather than saving $26 million a year as was estimated in 2005. Several moves in Oklahoma were part of that recommendation.

(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)