Crumbling Military Facilities Need Billions

Crumbling Military Facilities Need Billions

NewsMax.com Wires
Friday, March 30, 2001

WASHINGTON (UPI) – U.S. military facilities in Europe need $2 billion worth of work, and their computer networks and communications infrastructure are dangerously inadequate and in need of replacement, according to the head of the U.S. European Command, Gen. Joseph Ralston.

Ralston's main concern is military housing, he told the House Armed Services Committee Thursday. Almost 70 percent of military personnel and their families in Europe live in substandard housing that needs $600 million worth of work just to bring it up to minimal standards. "We have in excess of a $2 billion backlog in terms of military real property maintenance," Ralston said.

He said the Pentagon has told him it would funnel an additional $600 million into his construction account over the next five years, which should be enough to address the barracks problem.

Ralston said another major problem resided in his computer systems. The wires are old, corroded by weather and built to meet World War II-era requirements.

"In the event of a major crisis in [the Middle East], nearly all of our mission-essential communications could be pre-empted by the surge in bandwidth requirements from U.S. Central Command," Ralston said.

"Realistically, this infrastructure needs to be replaced with modern high-bandwidth capability – preferably, within the next five to seven years – a significant investment, but one that we can't afford not to make."