The Deferred Maintenance Backlog for the Military Services’ Buildings
Report
CBO estimates that the cost of deferred maintenance for more than 100,000 buildings maintained by the active components of the military services in the United States and its territories was about $50 billion in 2020.
The Department of Defense (DoD) has thousands of buildings on its bases. Together, the buildings cost several billion dollars each year to maintain, but funding for the task has regularly fallen short of the amounts that the department estimates would keep them all in working order. As a result, DoD faces a backlog of maintenance.
For this report, the Congressional Budget Office analyzed the condition of more than 100,000 buildings that the Air Force, Army, Marine Corps, and Navy use and maintain on their bases in the United States and its territories. On the basis of data provided by the services, which were current as of September 2020, CBO found the following:
Total Deferred Maintenance. The four services had about $50 billion in deferred maintenance on their bases; the Army and the Navy accounted for about 70 percent of the backlog.
Deferred Maintenance Costs per Building and per Square Foot. The Marine Corps and the Navy had higher deferred maintenance costs, on both a per-building and a per–square-foot basis, because their buildings were reported to be in worse condition than the other services’ buildings.
Buildings With High Replacement Values. The Air Force’s and the Navy’s buildings with the highest replacement costs, or (in DoD’s parlance) replacement values, tended to be in the best condition.
The Aging of Buildings. The Marine Corps had, on average, newer buildings than the other services had, but the Marine Corps’ buildings appeared to degrade faster as they age.
Since 2020, the prices of goods and services in the United States have risen considerably, so the costs of maintaining DoD’s buildings have probably increased from the estimates presented here—and will probably continue to rise.
