Construction workers demolish a former barracks building on Camp Lejeune, N.C., on Nov. 1, 2023. Dozens of construction projects are underway at the coastal North Carolina Marine base, including some $3.6 billion worth of renovations and new building projects authorized after the catastrophic Hurricane Florence caused major damage to the base in 2018. (Corey Dickstein/Stars and Stripes)

The Pentagon admitted its aging housing and other buildings on hundreds of U.S. installations were substandard in a new strategy released last week that aims to improve military infrastructure to better serve the lives of service members.

The Defense Department now faces $134 billion in a growing backlog on needed infrastructure maintenance and upgrades across the 538 bases that it owns in the United States and 25 other countries, Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks wrote in the strategy published Feb. 14 and dubbed the Resilient and Healthy Defense Communities Strategy.

While the department spends almost $30 billion every year on building new facilities and upgrading old structures, Hicks wrote it was not enough to address problems in the Pentagon’s buildings — most of which were built in the 1970s or earlier.

“The department recognizes that a significant gap persists between installation conditions today and the quality standards that our service members and their families expect and deserve,” Hicks wrote in a memorandum accompanying the strategy’s release. “Given the magnitude of the infrastructure funding deficit, it is imperative that we not only invest more but also invest better to achieve our goal of delivering healthy, safe, functional, and resilient spaces.”

Hicks wrote improving facilities for service members, Defense Department civilian employees and military family members was a “national security imperative” and “our moral obligation to the people who defend our nation.”

Each of the military services have admitted to problems that plague their infrastructure, especially with on-post living quarters in family housing managed by private agencies and barracks run by the military. Among the most high-profile issues have been mold infestations in housing at numerous posts and reports of rodent and insect infestations, shortages of living spaces, and infrastructure problems such as broken air conditioning systems. In recent weeks, soldiers at Fort Liberty, N.C., have also seen trash piling up in dumpsters on the post, with Army officials there blaming equipment problems with the company contracted to dispose of waste on the installation.

Lawmakers have called out the military for years over poor living conditions. But Congress has yet to pass a Pentagon budget for fiscal 2024, which began Oct. 1, that could provide funding to address infrastructure problems. Top military officials, meanwhile, have admitted the substandard living conditions likely have contributed to the military’s recent recruiting woes.

Barracks and other living facilities for single service members are at the top of the list of needed improvements, said Brendan Owens, the assistant defense secretary of energy, installations and environment.

“We are centering everything that we are doing in that space around making sure that we are understanding what soldiers, the sailors, the airmen, the Marines, the guardians need out of their facilities in order to make sure that the version of themselves that shows up to work the next day after spending a night in a barracks or a dorm is the best version that we can for them to execute their mission.”

The new plan outlines three areas of the Pentagon’s on-post communities that it seeks to improve — new requirements based on improving human wellness, cutting down the Defense Department’s footprint, and finding new ways to manage department assets.

Hicks vowed to adopt “human-centered requirements,” which would include new technology-based mechanisms for troops and their families to provide feedback to installation managers, and it would seek to improve facilities with human wellness in mind instead of providing troops merely utilitarian living quarters.

She also called on the Pentagon to eliminate underused and inadequate buildings through consolidation to shrink the Defense Department’s massive infrastructure and save money. Hicks called for a “smaller, higher-quality portfolio” of newer buildings that are purpose-built to last for decades and better withstand harsher climates than structures the military built in and before the 1970s.

Finally, Hicks called on the Pentagon to develop a new “asset management strategy” to improve the DOD’s sustainment performance while also reducing costs. She wants the department to “deepen partnerships with private industry, local and state governments, and academic and community organizations to leverage their capabilities in infrastructure financing, design, construction, and management.”

The strategy instructs the military to consider the happiness and well-being of its service members, their families and the civilians who work on installations when building new structures or improving existing buildings. Hicks asked officials consider things such as the ability to walk to amenities on post, how much natural light is present in homes, and how community designs can influence social interaction when designing new military infrastructure.

The strategy did not indicate how much money planned improvements would cost or how long its implementation could take. A Pentagon spokesperson said Wednesday that such estimates were unavailable.

Hicks wrote it would take “significant investment” to bring the Pentagon’s infrastructure up to an “acceptable level.”

The efforts will begin with a DOD-wide survey of existing infrastructure “to better align supply with demand, [identify] opportunities to consolidate, repurpose, and, where applicable, dispose of excess facilities that are no longer necessary to execute the mission or meet our people’s needs,” according to the strategy.