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[No. 2]

H.R. 2743-TO AUTHORIZE CERTAIN CONSTRUCTION AT MILITARY INSTALLATIONS, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,

COMMITTEE ON ARMED SERVICES, Washington, D.C., Monday, February 20, 1961.

The committee met at 10:11 a.m., Hon. Carl Vinson (chairman of the committee) presiding.

The CHAIRMAN. Let the committee come to order.

A quorum is present.

Members of the committee, the purpose of this hearing this morning is to commence consideration of H.R. 2743, and I think it is proper

for me to make a statement with reference to this bill.

I have requested that a copy of this statement be laid on each member's desk, and also that copies be given to the press because it contains some important information about this bill that we will take up later on after we have had the witnesses.

Members of the committee, I think it important that I make a brief statement with respect to this bill before we begin with the witnesses scheduled to testify in respect to it. My purpose in making this statement is to provide you with a broad perspective of what this bill is intended to do and, in addition, point out certain features in this legislation which should be of particular interest to all members.

I have personally given considerable study to every line item which appears in this legislation, and except for a few items I intend to call to your attention, I feel that the recommendations of the various military departments are solid and genuinely necessary.

There is only one new major installation contained in this legislation. This concerns the Department of the Navy and represents the Atlantic Underwater Test and Evaluation Center. Therefore, this bill in very large part merely represents improvements or additions to installations and programs with which we are all familiar.

This bill contains requests for authority for the construction of the physical plant for all military forces. This physical plant together with the men and equipment make up the essential elements of our defense structure.

The bill this year totals $772,575,000 for the Active Forces divided as follows:

Army.

Navy

Air Force..

$157, 097, 000

140, 589, 000 474, 889, 000

In addition to these figures, the Active Forces have requested deficiency authorizations in the amount of $47,355,000. is broken down as follows:

Army...

Navy

Air Force..

Total__

This figure

$4,930, 000 39, 700, 000 2, 725, 000

47, 355, 000

(13)

To this total of $819,930,000 must be added the request for construction authority for the Reserve Forces. This figure amounts to a total of $50,562,000. A breakdown of this figure indicates the following:

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Grand total for the Reserve components of the 3 services. 50, 562, 000 So the total of the bill, including the Active Forces, the Reserve components, the deficiency authorizations, amounts to a grand total of $870,492,000.

I am happy to state that this year's program for the Active Forces is substantially below that of last year. As you will recall, the military construction bill for the Active Forces for fiscal year 1961 amounted to a total of approximately $998 million.

Now let's take the subject matter of the military construction

program.

The authorization this year for the Active Forces is approximately $772 million and is therefore substantially less than that requested in the previous year. The difference is approximately $226 million.

This drastic reduction in military construction requirements points up the fact that a substantial portion of the new construction requirements of the departments have now been met.

Construction of Strategic Air Command dispersal bases and alert facilities and basic air defense installations will be virtually completed this year. However, decreases in these areas of military construction requirements have been partially offset by some increases for missilebase construction.

Authorizations to complete work on Atlas ICBM bases were provided last year. The 1962 programs continues to provide for future Titan and Minuteman base construction. It also includes authorizations for additional base construction to support the Polaris submarine fleet, including expanded training facility requirements for this

program.

Authorizations for the improvement of radar systems associated with the Nike-Hercules in this country and overseas and control facilities for Hawk air defense missiles overseas are also provided.

Other important projects in the current military construction program include: Additional construction of test facilities for the NikeZeus antimissile development program, additional construction of facilities for the worldwide communications system, and the first portion of the Atlantic Underwater Test and Evaluation Center. The existing physical plant of the military departments including avaiation, waterfront, medical, and maintenance facilities will also be improved and modernized.

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