Aging infrastructure is endangering US military’s capacity to innovate
Inspection of aircraft bolts in a lab at Goldwater Air National Guard Base. (Photo: US Air Force)
The US’s ability to prepare for future conflicts had been placed at risk with many Pentagon laboratories and testing centres being housed in poorly maintained and aging structures.
The Pentagon could face serious challenges in developing and accessing cutting-edge solutions due to infrastructural issues at its facilities.
Despite planning to invest more than US$5.5 billion in innovation over FY2024, the House Armed Services Committee Democratic representative John Garamendi (California) highlighted during a recent hearing that laboratory issues were “certainly a major part of the [department’s facilities] problem”.
The DoD and its services currently operate more than 50 laboratories and testing centres across 22 US states. Some of those units have been located in more than 60-year-old buildings and installations which have not been properly maintained over the
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