Nearly 1 in 5 DoD facilities now in ‘failing’ condition after years of maintenance cutbacks

[unhappycamper]

http://federalnewsradio.com/defense/2016/03/nearly-one-five-dod-facilities-now-failing-condition-years-maintenance-cutbacks/

Nearly 1 in 5 DoD facilities now in ‘failing’ condition after years of maintenance cutbacks
By Jared Serbu
March 4, 2016 5:35 am

The number of facilities that are so poorly maintained that they now meet the Pentagon’s definition of “failing” has more than doubled in just the past year, a result of conscious decisions to make building upkeep a low priority during a period of constrained budgets.

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In 2015 and early 2016, more and more buildings that were already in poor condition slipped into the failing category according to DoD’s Facility Condition Index, and things are almost certain to get worse over the next two years. The Pentagon’s 2016 budget asked for only enough facility sustainment, restoration and modernization funds to cover 81 percent of its actual maintenance needs for existing facilities. The 2017 budget request of $7.5 billion would cover just 74 percent of the annual maintenance bill.

“We have over 52,000 buildings in poor or failing condition right now,” said Katherine Hammack, the assistant secretary of the Army for installations, energy and environment. “The majority of our facilities budget is focused on combatant commander requirements and new missions, which for us means cyber and unmanned aircraft. What it doesn’t get after is the significant number of buildings out there that are already failing.”

All three military departments say they prioritized new construction over existing facility sustainment in the 2017 budget, but the separate “MILCON” budget would also be 14 percent lower in 2017 than in 2016, and the lion’s share of that funding would be used to support ongoing military operations overseas. Domestically, the priorities would be for facilities that must be built or upgraded to support new aircraft such as the F-35 – not for existing buildings that have deteriorated so much that they need to be torn down and replaced.

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I seem to recall reading an article about a month ago that each F-35 requires a ground crew of 20 people to maintain it.

[-none]

1. More evedence our priorities are totally screwed up.

Scrap the unneeded and unwanted Stupid Useless Plane, the F-35 and use the money saved to fix, repair and up grade the buildings. Sell those buildings that are unneeded.
And with the rest of the hundreds of billions of dollars left over by not building the F-35, apply that to repairing and upgrading our crumbling infrastructure.

We wouldn't need all this armament if we stopped making enemies and started helping people instead.