Posts Tagged ‘Guam’

Pentagon spending to support a permanent military presence in Germany, South Korea and Japan is subject to little oversight and rising faster than anticipated, according to a report released Wednesday by the Senate Armed Services Committee. Nearly 70 percent of the $10 billion DOD spends on overseas installations goes to facilities in those three countries. The committee’s review looked at how the burden of costs is shared between the United States and its allies, the impact of planned posture changes on those costs, and the spending and oversight of foreign governments’ in-kind payments used for military construction projects …

The new plan the U.S. and Japanese governments announced Friday to reduce the U.S. footprint on Okinawa could take 16 years to complete. Closure of Marine Corps Air Station Futenma and its realignment to another part of Okinawa, the trickiest part of the Okinawa Consolidation Plan, would occur by 2023 at the earliest. About 2,500 acres of land on the island currently under U.S. control, which includes six major installations, would be returned by 2029 …

The U.S. and Japanese governments have reached a deal to realign dozens of U.S. bases across Okinawa and resolve a decade-long question as to how thousands of U.S. forces would be repositioned around the Pacific, reported Foreign Policy. The two governments are expected to announce the plan to consolidate facilities in Okinawa on Friday. It will call for the U.S. to turn over six major facilities and a total of 2,500 acres to Japan …

The Senate Wednesday approved an amendment to its version of a fiscal 2013 continuing resolution stripping $120 million in funding for a wastewater treatment facility and other civilian infrastructure projects on Guam, after Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) cited the funding as an example of pork barrel spending. The vote came after McCain and Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) lifted a hold they had placed on the measure needed to keep the government running in the second half of FY 2013 …

The relocation of about 5,000 Marines from Okinawa to Guam is on track to be completed by 2020, a six-year delay from the original goal of 2014, Adm. Samuel Locklear, commander of U.S. Pacific Command, told lawmakers Tuesday. Locklear urged the House Armed Services Committee to accelerate funding for the realignment of forces in the Asia-Pacific region, which also includes shifting several thousand Marines from Japan to Hawaii. That realignment has a 2026 completion target …

The House Armed Services’ Readiness Subcommittee has a new chairman for the 113th Congress, but its senior Democrat will remain Madeleine Bordallo, the Guam delegate announced this week. In a written statement, Bordallo said she will continue to support the military construction effort needed to ready Guam to accommodate about 5,000 Marines relocating from Okinawa …

There’s every reason to expect Congress to restore its support for the move to Guam of thousands of Marines from Okinawa, a senior Navy official said Sunday. “We’ve answered their concerns; we’ve done the study; we have this process for the environmental impact study completed with some pretty good detailed information,” Joseph Ludovici, principal deputy assistant secretary (energy, installations and environment) said prior to a scoping meeting on Guam to gather public input for the environmental review …

The Navy this week restarted its review of seven locations on Guam under consideration to house the main base and firing range needed to accommodate thousands of Marines relocating from Okinawa. Officials are showing the island’s residents proposed locations for live-fire training ranges and housing, and soliciting their input for the environmental impact statement now under way …

The Navy will reassess where on Guam it will house thousands of Marines relocating from Okinawa and where it will construct a firing range in response to a substantially smaller realignment than officials previously considered. Among the new options officials will study for the main cantonment and family housing areas are Andersen Air Force Base and Naval Base Guam, which were initially dismissed because it was not believed they could accommodate a large force of Marines …

Pentagon officials are hopeful they are close to striking a deal with the Senate to resume funding construction projects on Guam needed to accommodate the relocation of thousands of Marines from Okinawa. Since the July release of a congressionally mandated assessment of the nation’s realignment plans for the Asia-Pacific region, Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton Carter has reached out to several members of Congress to discuss lawmakers’ outstanding concerns regarding the realignment …