Cover Story
Tip Of The Spear
Guam Is On Point For U.S. In Asia
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| USS Buffalo crew members participating in a change of command ceremony shortly after the submarine's arrival at its new homeport in Guam to join Submarine Squadron 15. |
The U.S. military has actually been increasing its presence on Guam for more than six years under a number of Navy and Air Force initiatives. In addition, a plan to bring an Army ballistic missile defense unit to the island is being evaluated, as are facilities to accommodate visiting nuclear-powered aircraft carriers. Another $5 billion in military construction in Guam can be expected by 2020, officials have said.
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Meanwhile, other military activity, unrelated to the Marine relocation, has been on the upswing. In recent years, Andersen Air Force Base on northern Guam has come to include the largest fuel-storage capacity in the Air Force and is now home to bombers and aerial tankers on an ongoing rotational basis. The U.S. Air Force is currently implementing two plans that will add about 3,500 people to the base.
Commander Naval Forces Marianas is also preparing for more activity. Improvements to wharf facilities and to the harbor area including dredging, are both ongoing and upcoming in order to accommodate newer, larger vessels—specifically SSGN-class submarines and T-AKE logistics ships.
Officials estimate that Guam's resident population will jump 25 percent by 2014 with the arrival of the Marines, their dependents and a wide assortment of support personnel. In addition, about 15,000 workers will be needed temporarily to complete the $15 billion worth of military construction work expected during the next decade. As military planners are determining what Department of Defense facilities will look like in 15 years, the territory's civilian government is bracing for the impact on residents who reside outside the base fence lines.
Guam's neighbors are hoping the buildup will have flow-on effects for them. In April, the inaugural Pacific Mayors Conference will be held in Guam to identify these opportunities, particularly "manpower requirements for construction and construction supplies," the conference's executive summary states.
An official from the U.S. Department of Labor will talk about the government's perspective on the labor needs associated with the military buildup, while a representative from the Guam Contractors Association will speak about labor and supply needs.
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A Plethora of Projects
The $10.27 billion to be spent for the III Marine Expeditionary Force relocation represents a daunting amount of work. Once construction begins in 2010 some $2 billion to $3 billion worth of work will need to be completed each year in order to complete the move by 2014 as agreed by Japan and the United States governments.
Historically, the capacity of Guam's construction industry has been about $800 million per annum. "Experts tell me that maybe we can get $1.5 or $1.8 billion per year," said retired Marine Maj. Gen. David Bice, executive director of the Joint Guam Program Office during the Dept. of Interior's Islands business forum last October. "I want to push north of $2 billion to get it done in a timeline that meets our requirements."
The total number of U.S. Marines to be relocated to Guam will likely be more than the 8,000 that have been discussed, according to Bice. The overall personnel increase in the Corps from 176,000 to 202,000 will be reflected in the size of the units moving to Guam. "The actual structure is being worked on, but it'll probably be more than the 8,000 that we have depicted."
Both ground combat and the logistical support element members will be departing and returning to Guam frequently for combat operations and training. Facilities to accommodate the Marines' specialized vessels will be built at Apra Harbor on the Naval Base.
A non-firing training range will likely be built at the abandoned Andersen South housing area, which has been used periodically for urban warfare training since it closed. A plan for firing ranges in the area is being developed, but most such facilities, including the largest, will likely be built on Tinian–necessitating enhanced air and sea transportation facilities in the Northern Marianas as well as Guam.
Current plans call for 3,520 family housing units to accommodate the Marines—most, if not all, will likely be located in the South Finegayan housing area within two miles of the NCTS base (MEF Command location). While initial announcements were that all new activity would take place on lands already owned by the Department of Defense, during the past several months military officials have said a number of times that landowners have approached them about the availability of their private property for sale or lease.
A unique aspect of the Marine relocation is the fact that Japan, a foreign government, is funding a substantial portion of the construction of U.S. military facilities for U.S. forces on U.S. soil. The U.S. funding ($4.18 billion for operational facilities, barracks, quality of life facilities and the support highway) will be spent in accordance with the federal Military Construction law, which will appropriate it–subject to the Federal Acquisition Regulations and with favorable consideration for U.S. firms (foreign firms must underbid US contractors by 20 percent). The $2.8 billion direct contribution from the government of Japan (for operational facilities, barracks and quality of life facilities) will be subject to the acquisition regulations, but not the U.S. preferential consideration.
"All of this is subject to be approved by both nations," said Bice. "But...it's our intent to have a level playing field for U.S. and Japanese companies and anyone else who's qualified to bid on that work."
The remaining $3.29 billion from Japan is in the form of loan guarantees from the Japan Bank of International Cooperation. "Special Purpose Entities"—the Japanese term for companies in public-private partnerships—will borrow $2.55 billion to build, and then manage and operate the family housing for the Marines. They will recoup their investment from the rent of the homes over the life of the facilities. "[An SPE is] a business. So unlike the Dept. of Defense military construction, which has to be exclusively held within [DoD] interests, the special purpose entities can accommodate some support to the Guam civilian side," Bice says.
Presumably the SPEs would be Japanese companies—"It's the Japanese Bank of International Cooperation thats loaning money to the special purpose entities. Figure it out for yourself who that would be. I don't know, but I have a suspicion,” Bice said. Observers suggest that Japanese companies would likely partner with U.S. firms to best handle U.S. military requirements.
