REDSTONE ARSENAL, Ala. – Senior leaders representing all of the active Army’s major commands are at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas, Sept. 23-27, to prioritize Facility Investment Plan funding for the Army’s future infrastructure needs.
“The power of the FIP is that it represents commander priorities,” said Lt. Gen. Chris Mohan, Army Materiel Command deputy commanding general and acting commander, adding that commanders are best positioned to determine needs.
Mohan provided the opening remarks for the wargame, emphasizing the FIP connects the “science of facilities” to the “art of command.” He also noted that this year’s event is more “analytic, transparent and delivered to provide additional decision space.”
Senior leaders are leveraging data-driven analytics on all real property assets in the Army’s inventory – from barracks and work centers to quality-of-life facilities like child development centers, dining facilities, and gyms – to help define the prioritization process to program money toward construction and renovation projects.
“The FIP is a 10-year plan to ensure the Army is investing in the infrastructure needed to support quality of life for Army people and the readiness of our Army,” said Lt. Gen. Omar Jones, commanding general of Installation Management Command. “The FIP wargame is critical to ensure leaders across the Army understand the infrastructure requirements and priorities of Army installation commanders and inform budget decisions by the Army leadership.”
The annual AMC-led and IMCOM-hosted FIP wargame began in 2020 to establish a cyclical and evolving process to strengthen installation readiness for the Army of 2030 and beyond.
“The FIP analyzes all active Army facility requirements over a 10-year period,” explained Paul Schaefer, AMC’s deputy director of Facilities, Logistics and Environmental Management. “The FIP captures military construction, restoration, and modernization needs as identified by installations. These requirements are then prioritized by senior leaders every year at the FIP wargame.”
Valid prioritization, however, requires accurate information, explained Andrew Williams, FIP program lead for AMC. The key to the process relies heavily on data analytics compiled from constantly updated real-time facility inspection reports that not only identify current conditions, but also project future degradation and estimated repair costs based on age of infrastructure and equipment.
Pulling all of that data together to extrapolate both a current assessment and long-term forecast is the Army’s BUILDER Sustainment Management System (SMS) program which provides summary metrics to view the overall health of each building and system for benchmarking and prioritization purposes.
“That data ensures we make the best possible decisions to focus Army funding on the most pressing needs,” said Schaefer, adding that considerations in the wargame prioritization process also takes into account such factors as the effects of climate change on infrastructure, to allow for different construction technologies and renewable energy for resiliency.
“The FIP is a living document and sometimes plans change based on a variety of factors, both internal and external,” said Schaefer. “This annual process lets us review our requirements and realign our efforts within a 10-year window to ensure we are getting after our biggest needs as prioritized by leaders at each installation.”
Following the wargame prioritization process, the construction and modernization projects are submitted for Secretary of the Army approval.
Social Sharing