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Costs of Marine expansion in Guam on rise

More than two years after the Corps agreed to move more than 8,000 Marines from Okinawa, Japan, to Guam, key details in the plan remain unclear, and the cost is rising.

Marine Forces Pacific officials estimate the shift to Guam will exceed $15 billion, nearly $5 billion more than Defense Department officials expected, according to a report released by the Government Accountability Office.

Officials say the additional money is needed to purchase essentials: high-speed ships to transport troops to and from Guam, furniture and office equipment and land for training ranges there and on the nearby Northern Mariana Islands.

Alone, the strategic lift support needed to use the isolated island will cost the Corps $88 million more per year than if it ran the same operations on Okinawa, the report said.

Officials with the Navy’s Joint Guam Program Office, which is overseeing the move, say the move to Guam is still the Corps’ best bet.

“Planned force posture development on Guam is important to our national security interests, particularly our strategy for global defense posture realignment,” JGPO officials said in a Sept. 15 report to Congress. “The net effect ... will be strengthened military capability and improved political stability in the Pacific.”

Overall, the planned military expansion on Guam will primarily involve the Corps, with III Marine Expeditionary Force and 9,000 dependents relocating to the tropical island beginning in 2012. But the Army, Navy and Air Force are also involved, JGPO said.

The expansion plan submitted to Congress said the Air Force recently completed plans and already has begun construction on an intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance strike task force, which will be based at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, and use stealth weapons.

The Air Force also will relocate expeditionary training centers from South Korea and civil engineering training centers on Okinawa to a new airfield on the Guam air base sometime after October 2011, the JGPO report said.

Meanwhile, Army officials are planning to introduce air and missile defense to Guam, including a possible battalion-sized AMD task force.

No timeline has been disclosed, but the soldiers would oversee surface-launched advanced medium air-to-air missiles that would offer defense against cruise missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles.

The Navy is planning to conduct frequent aircraft carrier visits to Guam beginning in 2019, when it anticipates a new pier will be completed.

The GAO said the Defense Department still faces “significant challenges” on Guam, including finding funding and addressing the impact on the local community.

One portion of those challenges took center stage Sept. 23, when officials from Guam and JGPO testified before Congress about natural resources and an expected worker shortage. Officials say 12,000 to 15,000 trained workers will be needed for construction.

Guamanian officials acknowledged the shortage, but called for a federal study of future labor needs on the island and funding for labor training before the bulk of construction begins in 2010.

“There can be no alternative,” said Robert Underwood, president of the University of Guam. “An economy which is based on bringing in workers from foreign sources and importing professionals from the outside on a short-term basis can be legitimately defended but is inefficient and unsustainable.”

Retired Maj. Gen. David Bice, JGPO executive director, told the committee that Guamanians will be given first priority in hiring, followed by other U.S. citizens and foreigners in the region. Visa restrictions on foreign workers have been eased, he said, because it is estimated that Guam may be able to fill only 25 percent of the construction jobs created.