Optimizing Army Base Realignment and Closure

In April 1997, the United States Army announced that savings had finally overtaken costs in closing or realigning 803 of its installations worldwide. This milestone occurred in the ninth year of a 13-year program approved by Congress and Presidents Reagan, Bush, and Clinton. The cost of this program is $5.3 billion, and when complete, the army expects annual savings of $996 million in perpetuity. A mixed-integer linear program , BRACAS (base realignment and closure action schedu-ler), helped the army budget for the 29 closures and 11 realignments approved by Congress and President Clinton in 1995. The army used BRACAS to schedule optimally the $2 billion in BRAC costs for these 40 installations over the six-year period mandated by Congress; associated annual savings will be $360 million. T he post-Cold War United States Army is smaller than its predecessor; 30 percent smaller than the force of 1989, the current active force of 495,000 is the smallest since 1939. A smaller force requires fewer installations, and reducing the number and changing the use of army installations increase efficiency and reduce costs. An army installation is much like a small city, in that maintenance and operating costs continue even when its population decreases. Closing an installation and relocating its inhabitants is costly, but the benefit accrues forever once the