Defending Maine’s Installations To BRAC Commissioners
In the case of PNSY, the DoD failed to consider "the extent and timing of potential costs and savings" as required by the BRAC criteria. The DoD developed a model known as "COBRA" to estimate the costs and savings associated with proposed base closures and realignments, but completely disregarded the model's results concerning Portsmouth. COBRA results show that closing PNSY would actually cost the DoD millions of dollars over twenty years, rather than provide any savings. Further, COBRA reports underestimated the cost of closing PNSY because they ignored Portsmouth's superior efficiency as compared to other shipyards.
Portsmouth delivers Engineered Refueling Overhauls for $82 million cheaper and six months earlier than the other shipyards' average. Over the last five years, Portsmouth has delivered submarines a total of 60 weeks early. During that same time, other shipyards have been a total of 124 weeks late. Despite these data, the COBRA analysis did not account for these savings.
It is undeniable that Portsmouth is the most efficient shipyard for maintenance of submarines. Efficiency is at the core of our shipyards' contribution to national security: the faster and better our submarines are repaired and upgraded, the sooner they can return to the fleet and more effective they will be.
By failing to account for Portsmouth's efficiency, the DoD did not fulfill its own criteria in assessing the true savings and costs of closing Portsmouth.
The Pentagon's evaluation of DFAS Limestone is also flawed due to inaccuracies in figuring the potential costs and savings. The problem in the case of DFAS Limestone is that the DoD did not conduct any COBRA analysis that examined the costs and benefits of keeping Limestone open. In fact, BRAC Commission Chairman Principi sent a letter to DoD on July 1st outlining precisely this issue. This omission led to a flawed recommendation that would not be in the best economic interests of the Department of Defense, the people of Maine, or the American taxpayers. In the absence of DoD analysis, an expert hired by the state of Maine conducted a COBRA analysis that examined keeping Limestone DFAS open and expanding the number of employees. Our analysis found that keeping DFAS Limestone open would maximize savings and reduce costs overall. Further, we found that the most cost-effective option is to expand the number of employees at the Limestone Center.
Although the Department calculated the economic impact of closure on communities in the vicinity of Limestone, it did not take this analysis into account when deciding to include DFAS Limestone on the BRAC closure list. The Department's analysis shows that the economic impact of the closure of DFAS Limestone on Northern Maine is the most severe among all of the 26 affected DFAS sites nationwide.
This closure would be a double blow to Northern Maine, given the previous closure of Loring Air Force Base in 1994. DFAS Limestone has been the anchor for the redevelopment of the base, and closing this facility based on faulty analysis would be unfair and unwise.
The DoD has also recommended that Brunswick Naval Air Station be realigned. This recommendation ignores the DoD's own criteria on military value, since in the past the Navy has repeatedly recognized the irreplaceable military value of BNAS.
Brunswick is the only fully capable operational DoD airfield remaining north of New Jersey, due to the closure of all other active duty air bases in the Northeast in previous BRAC rounds. The strategic location of BNAS makes it a vital link in our national defense posture and critical for surveillance of ships coming from Europe, the Mediterranean, and the Middle East. Its proximity to major population centers, combined with its ability to support every aircraft in the DoD inventory, makes BNAS essential across the full range of homeland defense operations and contingencies.
Brunswick's location provides it with unique capabilities for current and future operations in the defense of our homeland. Brunswick was a key base for homeland defense during the months following September 11th, providing P-3 surveillance missions under Operation Vigilant Shield, and land-based combat air patrol for Navy ships at sea.
Only Brunswick Naval Air Station can perform such missions efficiently in the future. Maritime patrol assets from Brunswick will continue to be needed to locate and monitor ships in the North Atlantic, including those potentially carrying weapons of mass destruction, cruise missiles, or other threats to our shores. Further, Brunswick's location and capacity has allowed it to be consistently utilized by aircraft and personnel during Operation Iraqi Freedom.
The removal of full-time, operationally ready maritime patrol assets from the Northeast would leave our nation vulnerable. And removal of Brunswick's air assets would have the same negative effects on this mission as would closure. This would increase the risk of failure in the defense of our homeland, a mission in which even a single failure could be catastrophic.
As the northeasternmost base in the United States, Brunswick supports mobilization efforts every day; and BNAS is the closest U.S military airfield to the current theater of operations. The DoD missed a tremendous opportunity to strengthen U.S. military capabilities by not placing other operational forces at Brunswick to fulfill current and future total force requirements that meet contingency, mobilization, surge operations, and training missions.
The removal of Brunswick's aircraft would significantly and dangerously degrade operational readiness, and it would increase response time in emergencies. This proposed realignment would not meet the needs of Northern Command's homeland defense missions. It would result in a Department of Defense that will operate less effectively and efficiently, and with many hidden costs.
It is critical to the integrity of the BRAC process that the DoD abide by its own guidelines in determining which installations are included or excluded from the BRAC list. It is clear that the DoD failed to do so in recommending closure and realignment of Maine's military installations at Kittery, Brunswick, and Limestone. It is my hope that the Commission will take into account the facts that the Maine delegation members provided when they make their decisions on the BRAC list.
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