Energy and Water Resource Resilience for Military Bases Is Key
With warnings that U.S. adversaries are already targeting vulnerabilities in U.S. critical infrastructure across the nation, military leaders at bases should understand the risks to power supplies and water and prepare contingencies, warned the commander of Joint Base San Antonio, Texas.
“[As we] posture and strengthen the joint force for today's global strategic competition, at Joint Base San Antonio we also recognize the important role that energy plays in ensuring mission readiness, operational flexibility and long-term sustainability,” said Brig. Gen. Randy Oakland, USAF, the base commander and leader of the 502nd Air Base Wing, on Tuesday at the AFCEA Alamo Chapter’s annual ACE conference.
The base is home to about 80,000 military warfighters, trains annually 138,000 student pilots and has 276 mission partners. It holds various missions, including basic and technical flight training, homeland defense, cyberspace operations and health care delivery.
“Joint Base San Antonio is a critical hub for the joint force and a key node in the Department of Defense's broader effort to modernize and ensure readiness,” Oakland stated. “These entities actively contribute to the development of cutting-edge capabilities.”
Of concern to the general, however, is making sure that the base can operate and support its warfighters if power or water supplies are disrupted.
“In a world where adversaries are actively targeting critical infrastructure, the ability to fight through energy disruption is not a luxury—it is a necessity,” Oakland noted.
The base is supporting the Air Force’s energy program that is designed to improve resilience, optimize energy demand and assure the supply of energy resources. It is a crucial effort, as all missions depend on energy and power in some way.
The program’s approach is centered on delivering “increased energy resilience, reliability and readiness, and a more agile force to maximize each watt of energy or gallon of fuel,” according to the commander.
This means reducing the base’s dependence on external sources of power. The base also needs robust power systems that are capable of withstanding disruptions and operating during emergency energy challenges.
“We envision a future that optimizes cost and provides resilient, cleaner sources of energy by balancing the objectives of energy projects and placing an increased focus on meeting multiple objectives within single projects,” he emphasized.
Another goal is also to increase leadership’s recognition of the importance of energy assurance and “a cleaner, cost-competitive” energy future. The military, Oakland said, needs a range of energy products to support the current strategic environment.
As such, the military must collaborate more closely between government, industry and academia on energy and water issues. “[This] has never been more important,” he said.
For example, last month, the San Antonio Water System hosted an industry day to support the secretary of the Air Force Energy, Installations and Environment’s Strategic Real Estate Opportunities Initiative.
The purpose of the initiative, the commander explained, is to determine the efficacy of potential alternatives to develop “large strategic real estate actions” associated with operating military installations for Joint Base San Antonio, i.e. other locations to put up shop.
“These efforts may develop into local partnership opportunities, as well as an increase in resilient carbon-free energy production,” Oakland shared. “We are proud to pursue these capabilities in coordination with our partners, and we look forward to enhancing the resilience of our numerous and important mission sets across the joint base.”
“For our mission partners here on the joint base, we are committed to leading the way in integrating energy resilience across all operations,” he emphasized.
