Does the Army Have a National Land Use Strategy?

The Army and the Department of Defense (DoD) have a long-term need to access land for training and testing. Both have been criticized for failing to determine their overall land needs, and for pursuing land expansions without a rational strategy. Critics charge that the military is involved in land-grabs driven by the inability to share resources across organizational boundaries within DoD. This report examines the physical and organizational boundaries of the DoD and Army land base, and it uses the Army as a case study of how land requirements are determined. The authors conclude that physical--not organizational--boundaries, along with advances in weapon systems, create the need for additional land. However, organizational and institutional boundaries prevent DoD and the Army from explaining this and forming a clear statement of the overall approach to determining land requirements. The authors recommend that the Army make its implicit strategy explicit, and they provide recommendations for more efficient use of the land base between major commands and services.