As I serve the third year of my tenure as Chief of Engineers, it remains an amazing experience leading the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as we support the Army and the nation.
"The Army is uniquely organized and has capabilities that are distinct from many of the other services," said General Ray Odierno, Chief of Staff of the Army, during an Association of the U.S. Army Institute of Land Warfare breakfast Jan. 23, 2014. "Our ability to conduct the Corps of Engineers' mission and what they do around the world and in the United States is unmatched."
It's clear that the Army Corps of Engineers is seen as a vital national security asset poised to provide crucial services supporting national security and the nation's infrastructure.
National security
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has a footprint that touches every state in the union. In addition, we have a physical presence in some 40 nations around the globe and are engaged with more than 130 nations.
To manage this global mission, our campaign plan has four goals: enable national security, transform civil works, reduce disaster risks, and prepare for tomorrow.
None of our four goals is more important than the others, but we list "enable national security" first for a reason. The Army Corps of Engineers often finds itself where the spheres of defense, diplomacy and development intersect because of our combined civil, military and research and development engineering expertise and capabilities.
Engineer Regiment
After assuming command, I planned to be the Chief of all engineers. My intent is to unify the efforts of all Army engineers -- the Engineer Regiment and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers -- to support the needs of the nation.
General Odierno has given clear guidance to move key Brigade Combat Teams (BCT) to the highest state of readiness, and one of the Army's priorities is creating engineer battalions within every BCT to add key capabilities. Equipping the Brigade Engineer Battalions (BEBs) is the Army's number one driver of BCT readiness.
In support of this effort, the Army Corps of Engineers and the Engineer Regiment are working closely to man, train and equip the BEBs to ensure the readiness of our BCTs.
Overseas contingency operations
Since Sept. 11, 2001, the Army Corps of Engineers has had more than 11,000 civilian deployments to Iraq, Afghanistan and other areas, with many civilians deploying multiple times.
In Iraq, we completed a more than $15 billion construction program, and in Afghanistan we built $9.54 billion in construction. By fall of 2016 we will complete another $1.31 billion of construction for a total Afghanistan program of $10.85 billion.
Our overseas contingency work does not end with Iraq and Afghanistan. The seven laboratories of our Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) are constantly working to protect Soldiers and U.S. citizens from terrorist threats. Emerging threats and evolving operational requirements demand new technologies and approaches for protecting warfighters and critical assets. Much of ERDC's work is classified, but a few generic examples can illustrate the scope of their mission.
Development continues on the Modular Protective System (MPS), a set of panels and frames that can be tailored to the threat. The MPS is composed of reusable materials that can be configured and placed with no equipment within hours. It can be configured with overhead cover, guard towers, mortar pits or retrofits to existing structures. The MPS protects against direct fire; rocket, artillery and mortar threats; shoulder-fired threats using an added pre-detonation screen; improvised explosive device blasts and vehicle ramming.
ERDC is working with DOD on a variety of protection systems, construction methods and techniques to create mission-tailored solutions for warfighters, and to study available and emerging hardening technologies for new construction, retrofit and stationing decisions.
Another critical research area is hardened structures for forward-deployed personnel in high-threat posts. These concepts apply to new and existing structures constructed with modern techniques for U.S. facilities and critical assets around the world.
ERDC has developed a fast-running engineering code to estimate net explosive weight used in underbelly IED attacks against vehicles. More than 300 experiments were conducted with various explosives, vehicles and soils, and the code has improved explosives estimates by more than 50 percent. The engineering code is taught to Soldiers and civilian teams at the Joint Readiness Training Center, and will be used by Explosive Ordnance Device teams and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives for forensics analyses.
Physical and numerical modeling of cable-stayed bridges, energy-absorbing materials, tunnel blast protection, embankment vulnerability to blast effects, and underwater blast effects on submerged infrastructure are being conducted to better protect critical infrastructure in the U.S. and abroad.
Technology to detect tunneling has been used since 2007 in contingency operations, and is currently used along U.S. borders to detect the movement of personnel, weapons and contraband. The system detects tunneling activity by employing buried sensors to monitor and process acoustic and seismic energy. Multiple systems can be networked to monitor large border areas or to surround secure facilities.
Combatant Commands and ASCC
We also are nested with the Combatant Commands (COCOM) and the Army Service Component Commands (ASCC). The Army Corps of Engineers has a liaison officer in these organizations to provide a link to our capabilities. Each of our divisions is regionally aligned with the ASCC and COCOM to provide engineering services.
In my role as the Chief of Engineers, we use the Engineer Common Operating Picture to brief the Chief of Staff of the Army on operations across the Engineer Regiment and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. In addition, twice a year the Army Corps of Engineers provides an update to each COCOM and ASCC commander on their area of operations.
Rebalance
However, the Army Corps of Engineers is not just a combat support agency. We are also an instrument of peaceful engagement.
General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has said "As I look forward and think about the need to rebalance the use of military power, I think we will need less direct action because it is the most costly, disruptive and controversial use of American power. By contrast, we need to do more in terms of building partners. I'm a huge advocate of doubling or even tripling our effort to build credible partners around the globe."
The Army Corps of Engineers plays a role in this rebalancing--we have been building partnerships for years. One of our key capabilities is the Institute for Water Resources (IWR), which was created in 1969 to enhance our ability to develop and manage the nation's water resources.
In recent years, IWR has shared its expertise internationally as other nations request advice on dealing with their water resource issues. Hardly a week goes by without IWR personnel visiting other nations, or water resource managers from other nations visiting IWR. For example, last November the Army Corps of Engineers and Brazil's Agencia Nacional de Aguas signed a three-year agreement focused on flood risk management, reservoir operations and management, and operation of national hydrologic networks.
Military construction and support to defense agencies
Our work on civilian infrastructure is vital to America's economy, but our work on military infrastructure is directly tied to national security. In our role as the DOD construction agent, the Army Corps of Engineers provides comprehensive services throughout the life cycle of our facilities and infrastructure projects.
Beyond support to the Army, we leverage our competencies to deliver quality facilities and related technical services to the Air Force and defense agencies on a reimbursable basis, including master planning and environmental clean-up. For example, we manage and execute all real estate functions for the Army, Air Force elements within the U.S., DOD and federal agencies upon request, and where the Army is the DOD executive agent.
Because more than two-thirds of design and 100 percent of construction managed by the Army Corps of Engineers is performed by the private sector, our military facilities and infrastructure projects contribute greatly to the U.S. design and construction industry, as well as supporting local economic activity and employment.
As we return to earlier military construction funding levels, we are designing programs to best meet our mission objectives within available budgets. For example, the Army's military construction program emphasizes Office of the Secretary of Defense and Army senior leader initiatives, critical command and control facilities, and recapitalization of Reserve Component Readiness Centers. The Army program is designed to be consistent with force structure decisions (Brigade Combat Team reorganization, Korea and Europe transformation), and flexible with regard to potential future force structure decisions.
Although programs are smaller, the Army Corps of Engineers is building facilities to house, train and care for Soldiers and their families at installations across the U.S. and around the world. Among these are the McNair-Murray replacement school at Fort Bragg, N.C., opening this fall; the $927 million Fort Hood, Texas hospital; and the $960 million hospital currently under construction that will serve active duty Soldiers, retirees and dependents at Fort Bliss, Texas.
Net Zero
One of our current efforts (and part of our "prepare for tomorrow" goal) is the Army's Net Zero Initiative. The Army's goal is to have 25 installations by 2030 that consume only as much water and energy as they produce, and eliminate solid waste to landfills. To test this concept, the Army is piloting five installations that by 2020 will be net zero energy, five to be net zero waste, five to be net zero water, and one that is all three.
Army Corps of Engineers projects at pilot installations include building four solar energy grids at Fort Hunter Liggett, Calif., each capable of producing about two megawatts of power, enough for about 600 homes.
Fort Carson, Colo., is the pilot installation for zero net use of energy, water and solid waste. The Army Corps of Engineers has built 77 Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certified buildings that will help Fort Carson reach this goal. Through these efforts, USACE is helping the Army achieve its congressionally-mandated energy goal of 25 percent production of energy from renewable sources by 2025, and improving installation energy security and sustainability.
Infrastructure
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has always been a nation-builder, and one of our most important national security missions is managing water navigation within the continental United States.
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River watershed is the third largest riverine system in the world, behind the Amazon and Congo rivers. But it has the largest navigable system in the world with more than 9,000 miles of inland waterways.
It is navigable due in large part to the Army Corps of Engineers. We have worked on the inland waterways system since 1824 when Congress assigned the Army Corps of Engineers to survey the Mississippi and Ohio rivers and remove snags. Our dredging, snag-pulling, mapping, navigation locks and water control structures help keep the rivers open.
This huge navigable waterway gives the U.S. a unique geopolitical advantage. We can easily move food and raw materials within our borders, move goods to the Gulf Coast for export to the world, and move import goods from the Gulf Coast to the interior.
Economic benefits
The economic benefits of America's inland waterway system are staggering. About 95 percent of all U.S. imports and exports move on our waterways, supporting 20 percent of all U.S. jobs. About $1.4 trillion of the $16.2 trillion U.S. gross domestic product is directly linked to this trade. There are quality of life benefits as well.
Our dams and levees on the U.S. waterway system prevented an estimated $361 billion in total flood damages from 2003 to 2012. The number is impressive, but it actually means that every dollar invested prevented a lot of human suffering.
In addition, the Army Corps of Engineers is the top federal provider of outdoor recreation with more than 370 million visits a year to 404 lake and river projects, which contributes $16 billion to local economies.
We are also the nation's top provider of "clean and green" hydroelectric power. We produce one quarter of the nation's hydropower, or about three percent of the nation's total electric energy.
Reducing risk for the nation
Among the bright spots in our infrastructure picture is the Hurricane and Storm Damage Risk Reduction System in New Orleans, one of the nation's best infrastructure success stories and a win for our "reduce disaster risks" goal.
Before Hurricane Katrina on Aug. 29, 2005, New Orleans' hurricane protection "system" had been under construction for 50 years and was only 50 percent complete. Sections had been built to different design standards and it was operated by several local agencies.
After Katrina, the federal government invested $14 billion in a state-of-the-art risk reduction system designed and built in just six years. It performed successfully during Hurricane Isaac and an important part of the system, the Inner Harbor Navigation Channel Surge Barrier project, recently won the Grand Conceptor Award for engineering achievement from the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE).
Meanwhile, projects developed many years ago continue to prove their worth. After the disastrous floods on the Lower Mississippi River in 1927, then-Chief of Engineers Maj. Gen. Edgar Jadwin submitted levees, floodways and overflow recommendations to Congress to prevent a recurrence. In 2011, this system contained floodwaters equal to those of 1927 with no loss of life and far less property damage.
We are making the same long-term commitment to reduce risk on the North Atlantic coast in the wake of Superstorm Sandy, and 2014 is a critical year in our $5 billion recovery program. We are building engineered beach systems in areas that had projects authorized by Congress before Sandy, but had not been built due to lack of appropriations. This work involves placing approximately 50 million cubic yards of sand along the coast. For the next two years, we will be fully engaged in what will likely be the largest beach building program in the history of the Northeast.
Areas to improve
Despite the many successes described above, as a nation, we must do better in managing the nation's inland waterways infrastructure. Periodically, the ASCE grades America's infrastructure -- aviation, bridges, energy, drinking water, rail, schools and more. Last year's overall grade was a D-plus. Dams received a D grade, inland waterways D-, levees D-, ports C and public parks and recreation C-. ASCE estimates that "the nation requires $3.6 trillion by 2020 to get [its infrastructure] to a good state of repair." Currently, the estimated investment is about $2 trillion, but that still leaves a shortfall of $1.6 trillion.
These are challenges that the nation must solve, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is prepared to assist.
Summary
In summary, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has been a force for national security since Col. Richard Gridley, the first Chief Engineer, directed construction of fortifications at Bunker Hill and Breeds Hill in 1775. It is an honor to lead the
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