Navy Infrastructure

The Navy's process for selecting the headquarters site for its new northeast regional command contains weaknesses. In selecting the site, it is unclear to what extent the Navy followed its own criteria for establishing or modifying shore activities or fully assessed the comparative cost of establishing and operating the new headquarters at all locations being considered. The cost to move the command from Groton, Connecticut, to the Earle Naval Weapons Center in New Jersey may be higher than the Navy estimated. Moreover, the Earle site has some operational limitations involving the capacity of the facilities' infrastructure to support the new command and increased travel time and costs associated with operating from Earle. Although the Navy contends that it needs a flag rank command closer to New York City to achieve certain operational benefits, GAO questions (1) how often the need to visit New York City arises, (2) whether the Earle location would significantly reduce travel time compared with travel time from Groton, and (3) whether it is desirable to separate the new command from other centralized support activities in Groton.

GAO noted that: (1) weaknesses exist in the Navy's process for selecting the location for the headquarters for its new northeast regional command; (2) in selecting NWS Earle, it is not clear to what extent the Navy followed its own criteria for the establishment, disestablishment, or modification of shore activities or fully assessed the comparative costs of establishing and operating the new headquarters at all sites it had indicated were under consideration; (3) the costs to establish the command at NWS Earle may be greater than the Navy estimated; (4) the NWS Earle site has some basic operational limitations compared with at least two other sites, including NSB New London and Newport; (5) these limitations relate to facilities' infrastructure to support the new command and increased travel time and costs associated with operating from NWS Earle; (6) the Navy stated that it needs a flag rank command closer to New York City to attain certain operational benefits; and (7) while this need may be appropriate, questions exist about: (a) how often the need to visit New York City arises; (b) whether the NWS Earle location provides a significant reduction in travel time compared with travel from the current location at NSB New London; and (c) whether it is desirable to separate the new command from other centralized support activities located at NSB New London.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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