Turning from recent successes to ongoing activities, Kitkowski offered, “Following IRRP there was a new bilateral agreement between the U.S. and the government of Japan, called the Defense Policy Review Initiative [DPRI], that had to do with ‘re-stationing’ of U.S. forces within Japan and Okinawa as well as relocating Japanese Self-Defense Forces within Japan, so that the defense of Japan is conducted in a more integrated and joint operational environment.
“The DPRI has led to a huge multibillion-dollar program that’s going to go on for many years,” he said, noting that just one of the significant projects within the effort involves the construction and movement of more than 170 buildings and facilities around Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni in order to allow the carrier air wing from the George Washington to relocate from Naval Air Facility Atsugi down to Iwakuni.
Also resulting from DPRI, another multibillion-dollar host-nation program currently increasing the USACE activity tempo is a massive two-phase effort on Okinawa: the Futenma Replacement Facility, moving the entire operation of a Marine Corps Air Station; and Okinawa consolidation, the relocation and reconfiguration of multiple sites to reduce the overall U.S. military footprint.
The U.S. Naval Hospital Okinawa Complex Relocation is part of the Government of Japan (GOJ) Host Nation Program, Special Action Committee on Okinawa land-return initiative. The U.S. Naval Hospital Okinawa is the largest overseas hospital in the U.S. Navy, with a beneficiary population of 55,000 on Okinawa, serving as the primary referral center for the Western Pacific. The new four-story hospital with half-basement totals 442,827 square feet and includes 86 beds and 20 nursery bassinets as well as 14 bassinets for the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. Photo courtesy U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Pacific Ocean Division
Kitkowski acknowledged that the future plans for the currently robust U.S. MILCON projects are still taking shape, but that the DOD’s Pacific Rebalance has created anticipation of “an uptick” to MILCON activities as well.
As critical contributors to the success of these myriad programs, POD’s Ban emphasized the close working relationship between U.S. Department of the Army civilians working for USACE and Japanese national civilians.
Quantifying the ratio as “about 50-50,” Ban said, “The Japanese nationals – engineers, scientists, administrators, resource managers, and others – are absolutely vital to our mission.”
Korea
Jon Iwata, deputy district engineer for the USACE Far East District in Seoul, Korea, described some of the massive efforts underway within the Yongsan Relocation Plan (YRP) and Land Partnership Plan (LPP). YRP and LPP are two separate bilateral international agreements between the United States and the ROK.
According to Iwata, YRP “relocates U.S. military units currently stationed in the capital of Seoul down south to U.S. Army Garrison Humphreys in an area called Pyongtaek [formerly Camp Humphreys].”
“Here in Seoul, the U.S. military occupies a large expanse of land mass in various installations,” he explained. “It’s called U.S. Army Garrison Yongsan and it’s a fairly good-sized installation of around 700 acres. The real estate is owned by the Republic of Korea, but it’s granted for us to use while we have a military mission here. But it’s valuable real estate right in the middle of their capital city. They would like that land back, so the YRP moves almost all of that presence currently in Seoul about 50 miles south.”
Once YRP is completed, the joint U.S. Forces Korea Headquarters is also expected to change its name to U.S. Korea Command.
Iwata described LPP as “a separate bilateral international agreement that basically closes most of the installations north of Seoul. And that is where the U.S. Army’s 2nd Infantry Division is scattered across several installations. And the plan is to also relocate those units to U.S. Army Garrison Humphreys.”
Other significant USACE programs now underway in Korea include the construction of new Department of Defense Education Activity schools at multiple locations, and MILCON construction/renovation of U.S. Air Force medical facilities at Osan Air Base as well as new/renovated health and dental clinics at Kunsan Air Base.
Just a glimpse at the combined scope of the two plans is impressive: 655 new buildings being constructed; 339 old buildings being demolished; and almost tripling the size of U.S. Army Garrison Humphreys from today’s 1,200 acres to 3,500 acres. With an overall program value of $10.7 billion, the combination of YRP and LPP represents the largest single program in USACE.
“The lion’s share of the LPP is being contracted by the Korean government and constructed by them,” Iwata continued. “That’s somewhere around 80 to 85 percent. And on YRP, an even larger percentage is being done by them. But the role of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in these programs is to ensure that the facilities are designed to U.S. standards and that the construction also meets U.S. standards.”
Other significant USACE programs now underway in Korea include the construction of new Department of Defense Education Activity schools at multiple locations, and MILCON construction/renovation of U.S. Air Force medical facilities at Osan Air Base as well as new/renovated health and dental clinics at Kunsan Air Base.
As he had with earlier Japan project overviews, Ban was quick to echo praise for the teamwork between U.S. Department of Army civilians and Korean national civilians working for USACE.
“The Korean nationals are invaluable in executing this program for us,” he said. “They are a key part of our overall staff.
“Both in Japan and in Korea, the engineers working with us are bilingual,” he added. “And we simply couldn’t do the work without our Korean national workforce and our Japanese national workforce.”
Mission Evolution
While programs underway in Japan and Korea remain critical to the U.S. posture in the region, the current rebalance strategy is helping to increase awareness of ongoing USACE programs across the Asia-Pacific region.