Annual Facility Investment Plan process identifies infrastructure priorities

By Stefan AlfordAugust 26, 2024

This new barracks project at Fort Cavazos was recently completed and had a ribbon cutting in March.
This new barracks project at Fort Cavazos was recently completed and had a ribbon cutting in March. (Photo Credit: Courtesy) VIEW ORIGINAL

REDSTONE ARSENAL, Ala. -- The Army officially kicked off its annual Facility Investment Plan process last month during a virtual meeting with senior leaders and stakeholders from many of the service’s commands.

The meeting established milestones for the Army Materiel Command-led program to continue to meet the service’s facility investment strategy and associated 10-year plan.

“We continue to prioritize based on people, readiness and modernization,” said Andrew Williams, FIP program lead for AMC. “The FIP establishes commander priorities for funding and provides visibility to senior leaders on infrastructure needs.”

The first phase of the process consists of real property inspections and incorporates an increased use of data analytics to enable more accurate and informed decisions for use of available funds to support present and future Army sustainment, readiness, and modernization requirements.

All Army Commands, Army Service Component Commands, Direct Reporting Units and installation senior commanders will rank their infrastructure requirements prior to AMC and Installation Management Command hosting a FIP wargame event Sept. 23-27 to prioritize those projects for funding. Barracks projects will continue to see increased emphasis, said Williams.

The Army initiated the FIP in 2020 to maximize use of Army resources and provide focused infrastructure improvements in accordance with senior leader facility investment priorities. AMC operationalized the FIP to unify the active Army’s planning for infrastructure investments in military construction and facilities sustainment, restoration and modernization over a 10-year horizon.

Annually, AMC oversees revalidation efforts and recommends modification to the plan based on Secretary of the Army guidance to enable the most efficient use of available funding.

The FIP cycle kicks off every July, based on input from supported commands. It consists of four phases: Phase 1 is the requirements development; Phase 2 is command validation and prioritization; Phase 3 is the analytics out brief and submission for Army senior leader approval; and Phase 4 is programming the approved projects into the budget.

The approved FIP is then incorporated into the Army’s funding plans and submitted to the Secretary of Defense as part of the Army’s budget estimate submission.