Department of the Air Force
Presentation
Before the Senate Appropriations
Subcommittee on Military Construction,
Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies

Military Infrastructure andClimate Resilience
Witness Statement of
Mr. Mark A. Correll
Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Air
Force for Environment, Safety andInfrastructure
May 19, 2021

Not for publication until released by the Senate Appropriations
Subcommittee on Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related
Agencies

Military Infrastructure and Climate Resilience
May 19, 2021

UNITED STATES AIR FORCEMARK A. CORRELLMark A. Correll, a member of the Senior Executive Service, is the Deputy
Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Environment, Safety andInfrastructure, Headquarters U.S. Air Force, Arlington, Virginia. He
provides executive leadership on all matters pertaining to formulation,
review and execution of plans, policies, programs and budgets for Air
Force built and natural infrastructure, environmental, installation energy,
safety and occupational health programs. These include facility
management, military construction, utilities privatization, energy security,
contingency energy, environmental compliance and restoration,
occupational safety and workplace health.
Mr. Correll was commissioned in the Air Force in 1981 as a graduate of
the U.S. Air Force Academy, earning a degree in civil engineering. He
commanded two civil engineer squadrons, a mission support group and an
air base wing. He retired in 2010 in the rank of colonel. Prior to his current
assignment, Mr. Correll served as the Air Force Deputy Civil Engineer. In
that position he provided leadership, direction and technical knowledge to organize, train and equip a 60,000-person
engineering force as well as development, construction, operation, maintenance, emergency response, readiness,housing and environmental quality of Air Force bases worldwide. He was appointed to the Senior Executive Service
in 2010. Mr. Correll is registered as a licensed professional engineer in the state of Texas.
EDUCATION
1981 Bachelor of Science degree in civil engineering, U.S. Air Force Academy, Colorado Springs, Colo.
1984 Master of Science degree in engineering management, Air Force Institute of Technology, Wright-Patterson Air
Force Base, Ohio
1987 Squadron Officer School, Maxwell AFB, Ala.
1993 Air Command and Staff College, Maxwell AFB, Ala.
2001 Air War College, Maxwell AFB, Ala.
CAREER CHRONOLOGY
1. June 1981 – May 1983, Chief, Readiness and Logistics, 375th Civil Engineer Squadron, Scott Air Force Base, Ill.
2. May 1983 – October 1984, Graduate Student, Air Force Institute of Technology, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio
3. October 1984 – July 1986, Chief, Resources and Requirements, 1606th Civil Engineering Squadron, Kirtland
AFB, N.M.
4. July 1986 – March 1987, Commander, Civic Action team, Truk State, Federated States of Micronesia
5. March 1987 – October 1987, Chief, Operations, 1606th Civil Engineer Squadron, Kirtland AFB, N.M.
6. October 1987 – October 1988, Student, Air Staff Training Program, Headquarters U.S. Air Force, Arlington, Va.
7. October 1988 – August 1992, Action Officer, Civil Engineer Operations Division, Headquarters Military
Airlift/Air Mobility Command, Scott AFB, Ill.
8. August 1992 – July 1993, Student, Air Command and Staff College, Maxwell AFB, Ala.
9. July 1993 – September 1996, Chief, Operations Flight, 305th Civil Engineer Squadron, McGuire AFB, N.J.
10. September 1996 – June 1998, Action Officer, Civil Engineer Environmental Division, Headquarters U.S. Air
Force, Arlington, Va.

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11. June 1998 – July 2000, Commander, 31st Civil Engineer Squadron, Aviano Air Base, Italy
12. July 2000 – June 2001, Student, Air War College, Maxwell AFB, Ala.
13. June 2001 – July 2002, Commander, 60th Civil Engineer Squadron, Travis AFB, Calif.
14. July 2002 – July 2004, Commander, 374th Mission Support Group, Yokota Air Base, Japan
15. July 2004 – July 2006, Vice Commander, 72nd Air Base Wing, Tinker AFB, Okla.
16. July 2006 – July 2008, Commander, 72nd Air Base Wing, Tinker AFB, Okla.
17. July 2008 – August 2010, Civil Engineer, Air Education and Training Command, Randolph AFB, Texas
18. November 2010 – June 2014, Deputy Air Force Civil Engineer, Headquarters U.S. Air Force, Arlington, Va.
19. June 2014 – present, Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Environment, Safety and Infrastructure,
Headquarters U.S. Air Force, Arlington, Va.
AWARDS AND HONORSAir Force Meritorious Civilian Service Award
Meritorious Executive Presidential Rank Award
Air Force Meritorious Civilian Service Award
Legion of Merit with two oak leaf clusters
Bronze Star Medal
Meritorious Service Medal with silver oak leaf cluster
Air Force Commendation Medal with oak leaf cluster
Air Force Achievement Medal with two oak leaf clusters
Professional Memberships and Associations
Society of American Military Engineers(Current as of January 2019)

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Introduction
Every Department of the Air Force (DAF) mission starts and ends on an installation.
Installations are weapon systems. We project power, generate readiness, test new platforms, train
to support joint operations, and provide safe and healthy communities for our families at our bases.
Air Force and Space Force installations serve as key nodes in enabling Joint Force mission successaround the world. More than 300,000 Total Force personnel organize, train, and equip at DAF
installations, and for thousands of Airmen, Guardians, and their families, installations also serveas their homes and centers of life. The readiness and resiliency of installations is a matter ofstrategic importance to ensure the Air Force and Space Force can always provide combat
capability.
Secretary of Defense Austin recently released his top three priorities for the Department of
Defense: Defend the Nation, Take Care of our People, and Succeed through Teamwork. He
identified tackling the climate crisis as one of the lines effort under the priority to defend the nation,
elevating climate as a national security priority. Changing climate and severe weather events area continual threat to our installations. Over the past several years, the Department of the Air Forcehas seen first-hand the impacts climate and severe weather can have on our installations. The
Department of the Air Force is smartly moving forward with rebuild efforts at Tyndall Air Force
Base (AFB), Florida, following the devastation caused by Hurricane Michael in 2018 and Offutt
AFB, Nebraska, following historic flooding in 2019. We are also recovering from and continuing
to assess damage from the recent Winter Storm Uri that brought extreme cold to much of theUnited States, impacting dozens of DAF installations throughout the Midwest and the southernpart of the country. We must continually learn from these events and adapt to meet current andfuture threats to our installations posed by severe weather and climate, as well as physical or cyberattacks.
The Department of the Air Force Approach to Installation Resilience
Installation resilience is a multi-faceted issue that is addressed through a variety of efforts
and funding streams. The DAF views installation resilience as the capability of a base to sustain
the projection of combat power by protecting against, responding to, and recovering from
intentional or accidental physical, cyber or naturally occurring events that impede air, space, orPage 4

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cyberspace operations. We take a holistic and deliberate approach to addressing installation
resilience on four primary fronts: energy, cyber, infrastructure, and emergency response.
Energy Resilience
The DAF requires reliable power and water to accomplish both operational and training
missions. The overarching vision for the DAF’s installation energy and water program is “Mission
Assurance through Energy Assurance.” This vision is focused on securing the ability to perform
our warfighting mission, in the face of disruptions to traditional sources, while simultaneously
optimizing energy and water availability and productivity through better planning and technology
and process improvements. The recently released Department of the Air Force Installation Energy
Strategic Plan highlights the DAF approach to integrate resilience concepts and considerations at
each step in the mission, from the strategic to tactical levels, to ensure enabling systems enhance
mission assurance.
Our approach to energy resilience starts with identifying system vulnerabilities throughvarious methods such as mission thread analysis and black start or Energy Resilience Readiness
Exercises (ERRE), developing mitigation actions and incorporating them into Installation Energy
Plans (IEPs), and ultimately executing energy projects designed to improve mission resiliency. As
one component of the overarching Installation Development Plan (IDP), IEPs identify water andenergy requirements for each installation’s critical missions, analyze potential vulnerabilities, anddevelop strategies to make enabling systems more resilient. By aggregating disparate elements ofenergy and water information and management, the DAF will have the means to assess the statusof energy and water systems, and communicate the potential impacts on mission readiness. The
IEP does this by establishing a baseline that outlines energy and water requirements for eachmissions on the installation (both DAF and tenant missions), and enables the installation to target
resilient solutions.
Black start exercises, or ERREs, are powerful tools the DAF is using to assess an
installation’s energy resilience and security. These exercises are designed to assess how well the
installation can execute its primary missions should power be compromised. The Department
executes these exercises, called Resilience Readiness Exercises (ERRE), out of the Office of theAssistant Secretary for Installations, Environment, and Energy. To date the Air Force has
conducted ERREs at Vandenberg AFB, California, Hanscom AFB, Massachusetts, and Joint Base
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McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst (JBMDL), New Jersey. These ERREs have been extremely helpful in
identifying energy gaps and validating response plans. Specifically, the most recent ERRE at
JBMDL revealed hidden interdependencies

between the installations electrical andcommunications architectures, identified issues with backup generation assets, and revealed a
training gap with installation personnel. Installation leadership was also able to validate several
continuity of operation plans could be executed during a power outage. The Air Force has plans
to complete additional ERREs at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, and Eielson AFB, Alaska, in 2021.
Cyber Resilience
From an installation resilience perspective, our cyber resilience efforts focus on preventing,detecting, and responding to unauthorized access to DAF facility-related control systems, such as
those associated with airfield lighting, power and water distribution, fire and intrusion detection,
back-up generators, and heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems. Control
systems used to be manually operated and maintained. As infrastructure has matured to become
automated and network-enabled, we have gained operational efficiencies without enoughconsideration for cyber vulnerabilities or the ability to operate in a cyber-contested environment.
In March of this year, the Secretary and Chief of Staff of the Air Force and Chief of Space
Operations signed the first-ever DAF Control Systems Strategic Plan and associatedImplementation Plan. These plans, which were developed over the last year by a cross-functionalteam from across the DAF, provide an actionable, enduring and unified strategy and high-levelroad map for the next 10+ years for how the DAF can holistically address the aggregated risk to
DAF mission execution from vulnerable control systems and infrastructure. The Strategic Plan
prescribes the direction, milestones, organization responsibilities and capability requirements tocyber-secure and defend DAF critical control systems.
Following direction provided in the fiscal year (FY) 2017 National Defense Authorization
Act and using funding from the FY17 Defense Appropriations Bill, the Air Force has assessed
priority installations for cyber vulnerabilities to critical infrastructure. Additional efforts toimprove cyber resilience include segmenting these control systems from the Air Force
communications network, embedding cybersecurity subject-matter expertise in our Civil Engineer
Squadrons to aid the cybersecurity management of these systems, and developing and fielding
cyber-specific education and training for our facility maintenance field technicians.
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prioritized, we are also resourcing the modernization and replacing replacement of obsolete control
systems through Military Construction (MILCON) or Facility Sustainment, Restoration, andModernization (FSRM) projects and addressing identified vulnerabilities. Lastly, we arecollaborating with the cyber defense community to establish agile detection, coordinated response,
and recovery when a cyber-incident occurs.
Infrastructure
The DAF continually accepts risk in installation investment, which over time leads toatrophied facilities and infrastructure. Degraded, older facilities are more susceptible to the effectsof routine or severe weather events. For example, separation of roofing materials from a facility
introduces a vulnerability where a strong wind could lead the weakened roof to collapse,
undermining the facility’s structural integrity and causing catastrophic failure. This was evident
at Tyndall AFB during Hurricane Michael where facilities constructed more recently, using
updated building codes, weathered the storm better than degraded or older facilities which wereboth constructed under older building codes and subject to longer term deferred maintenance. We
also observed this during recent winter storms such as Winter Storm Uri. In many instances,degraded facility systems and components failed which caused water and fire suppression pipes tofreeze and eventually burst.
The DAF Infrastructure Investment Strategy (I2S) is our long-term strategy to costeffectively modernize and restore infrastructure readiness, improve the resiliency of missioncritical nodes, and drive innovation in installation management practices. It serves as a frameworkfor planning and building resilient installations that are ready to withstand and quickly recoverfrom manmade and natural events which potentially impact our missions. Leveraging I2S, theDAF enhances resiliency by proactively upgrading facilities through targeted facility investments
informed by powerful analytics, stabilized funding, application of evolving building codes andUnified Facilities Criteria (UFCs) through MILCON or FSRM projects, and improved processes
such as more standardized building components to increase maintenance efficiency. UFCs are theDepartment of Defense building codes that implement industry standards and serve as ourplanning, design, and constructions foundation. They are updated by a tri-service panel to addresschanges in public law, military specific requirements and incorporate lessons learned from natural
disasters, new technology, and industry innovation.
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Updated design criteria also come from changes to public law. In the FY 2019 NDAA,
Congress directed OSD to update Department of Defense forms 1391 (DD 1391), Military
Construction Project Data, submitted for each MILCON project to include a certification whether
the project is located in a 100-year floodplain. The provision also required mitigation of flood risk
for facilities that must be constructed in a 100-year floodplain due to mission requirements byfollowing minimum flood mitigation requirements of the facility being cited two or three feetabove floodplain level, depending on mission criticality of the facility. Following implementation
guidance provided by OSD, all DAF DD 1391s submitted with the FY21 President’s Budget
request complied with the 100-year floodplain disclosure mandate. Additionally, the DAF is
implementing floodplain mitigation plans for several notable MILCON projects. Three missioncritical campuses at Offutt AFB, which were destroyed by historic flooding in spring 2019, must
be rebuilt in 100-year floodplains due to mission requirements. The elevation of the entire site is
being raised above the 100-year flood plain in accordance with the NDAA.
The DAF is embracing an approach to natural infrastructure to enhance installation
resiliency that relies on partnerships with other DoD organizations as well as Federal entities
outside of DoD. As witnessed by the devastation at Tyndall and Offutt Air Force Bases, damage
to DAF built infrastructure can be severe, but in the case of climactic events, they may beattenuated by environmentally-conscious improvements to natural infrastructure.

We areembarking on such a partnered approach at Tyndall AFB this year, where approximately $26
million in cost shared efforts are underway. These efforts bring together federal, state, nongovernment and academic partners to field test environmentally conscious improvements tonatural infrastructure. These improvements attenuate storm energy, whether from waves or wind,
lessening the intensity of what passes through to build infrastructure. Combined with built
infrastructure, which applies resilience features such as raised floor elevations and higher wind
standards, the natural infrastructure improvements provide a cost-effective force multiplier toresilience, survivability, and mission assurance. Another example is underway at Offutt AFB
where civil works built infrastructure provides additional flood protection for DAF real property.
In this case, the Missouri River Natural Resources District is repairing and improving levees that
protect Offutt AFB. This is a $35 million project that will raise the levees two to three feet andwiden their bases. The work began in September 2019 and is scheduled to be completed in May
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2021. This is a case where a non-federal partner is providing a front line of defense through natural
infrastructure improvements.
Emergency Response
Improving resilience is not just about the tangible aspects of an installation, it also includes
prepared Airmen, Guardians, and civilians. Even with the most state-of-the art building systems,
installations will always be at risk due to deliberate, accidental, or naturally occurring events.
Emergency management, disaster response, and continuity of operations planning are essential toensure an installation can respond and recover from an incident quickly while continuing to
execute the mission or, in more extreme situations, minimizing downtime. The Air Force IncidentManagement System uses the National Incident Management System as its foundation to integrateprevention, protection, mitigation, response, and recovery efforts across the installation while alsosynchronizing with local, state, and other federal agencies. Routine exercises of Installation
Emergency Management Plans ensure personnel are ready to face any disaster. Two days before
Hurricane Michael hit Tyndall AFB it went from a Category 2 on a path to bypass the installation
to a Category 5 with direct line of sight on the installation. Due to emergency management
preparedness, emergency management exercises, and installation emergency management plans,
Tyndall AFB evacuated all mission-capable aircraft, military members, and families in less than
48 hours. The result: no loss of life or aircraft.
Installation Planning Efforts
Our installation planning efforts impact each of the four primary DAF focus areas.
Effective installation planning, to include assessment of natural and manmade threats, is critical toensure our energy and infrastructure investments are effective and efficient and lead to ready andresilient installations. Planning efforts also help inform contingency and emergency response plandevelopment and execution. In recent years, Congress has included numerous provisions inlegislation specific to installation master planning efforts to enhance installation resilience efforts
across the Department of Defense.
The FY18, FY19, and FY20 NDAAs strengthened installation planning by requiring
resilience be considered in each installation master plan, which the DAF calls Installation
Development Plans, or IDPs, specifically including energy and climate resiliency efforts. In April
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2020, the Air Force published a Severe Weather and Climate Screening and Risk Assessment
Playbook. This playbook gives installation-level planners a consistent and systematic frameworkto screen for severe weather and climate hazards, assess relative current and future risks, andintegrate the outputs into existing planning and project development processes. The playbook alsooffers planners suggestions for how to adapt to hazards. As of early 2021, all major installations
have used the playbook to complete initial assessments of installation exposure and risk due tosevere weather and climate hazards. The results of these assessments will be used to develop the
new FY20 NDAA-required Installation Resilience Component plan for DAF IDPs over the next
several years.
Another component plan of the IDP is the IEP. The DAF is actively developing IEPs for
85 major Active Duty installations. These IEPs provide a standardized framework for Air Forceinstallations to identify risks and track and adjust requirements to advance energy and water
resilience goals. IEPs use a 5R framework (robustness, redundancy, resourcefulness, response andrecovery) to assess resilience gaps and identify how an installation plans for and performs in acrisis. When complete, IEPs will be a component plan to the installation’s IDP. To date, the DAF
has completed IEPs at 24 installations and is currently developing 20 more with estimatedcompletion by November 2021. The DAF is planning to initiate 15 IEPs in summer 2021, andcomplete the 26 remaining installations in two additional phases.
In the 24 completed IEPs, the DAF has identified over 300 installation-level resiliencegaps, and an even larger number of mission-level gaps at individual buildings. These gaps range
in priority, size, and complexity, but the DAF is evaluating all of them for potential mitigation
through additional analysis and a follow-up requirement development report which focuses on
actionable tasks to close the gap. Common gaps the DAF identified throughout the enterprise
include lack of redundancy in electric transmission and distribution infrastructure, aging
infrastructure past its useful life, lack of redundant HVAC systems for server equipment, fueldelivery and capacity concerns, water storage and quality concerns, lack of sufficient backup
power, and energy and water conservation and efficiency improvement opportunities.
Following completion of IEPs, the DAF develops one or more installation requirement
development reports which recommend executable projects to mitigate energy and water resilience
requirements and close the gaps identified in the IEP. The Air Force Office of Energy Assurance
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(OEA) has accomplished nine of these reports so far, identifying three Energy Assurance Leases(EALs), one Energy Resilience and Conservation Investment Program (ERCIP) concept, one
Energy Savings Performance Contract (ESPC) and four Utility Energy Service Contracts(UESCs). Overall, through IEPs and other processes, the DAF has planned and is currently
executing 15 projects representing $904 million in investments to directly address climate andextreme weather resilience as a primary driving factor. For example, ERCIP projects will help
defend Beale AFB and Vandenberg AFB in California against the impacts of the devastating
wildfires the region has experienced in recent years and two additional projects are supporting a
microgrid for Offutt AFB, to maintain mission essential power in case of future flooding. Out ofthese 15 projects, $750 million are budget neutral ESPC and UESC projects that are fundedthrough energy conservation measures, helping to reduce DoD climate impacts while utilizing thelatest in clean energy and efficient technologies from industry partners. Furthermore, the DAF has
20 ERCIP projects for $238M in planning or execution that provide climate/extreme weather
resilience as an additional benefit, with 20+ more projects currently in early development stages
with OEA. In total, these projects represent nearly $1.3B in planned DAF energy resilience
investment.
Moving Forward After Natural Disasters and Severe Weather Events
The DAF has seen the impacts natural disasters and severe weather can have on
installations. Recent examples include the devastation of Tyndall AFB from Hurricane Michaelin 2018, severe flooding of Offutt AFB in 2019, and historic winter storms such as Winter Storm
Uri which impacted 28 DAF installations this year. We continually learn from these events andadapt to meet current and future threats to our installations.
Tyndall AFB is being reconstructed as an Installation of the Future and includes cutting-edge
approaches to ensure the installation can withstand future climactic threats.

The built

infrastructure is being designed and constructed using the latest UFCs. In addition, given theextensive level of damage, the DAF made a policy decision to design beyond the minimum UFC
criteria for civil and structural engineering. The minimum design wind speed being used for all
new facilities at Tyndall AFB is 165 miles per hour, exceeding the highest wind speed captured
during Hurricane Michael, and incorporates best practices from the Florida Building Code’s High
Velocity Hurricane Zone for Miami-Dade, Broward, and coastal Palm Beach Counties. Facilities
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are also being designed 14 to 19 feet above today’s mean sea level, which incorporates a 7 footpredicted sea level rise scenario through the year 2100. The DAF used the DoD Regional Sea
Level (DRSL) database sea level rise scenarios to inform development of a Design Flood Elevation
for reconstruction at Tyndall AFB. Using DRSL data, DAF personnel generated spreadsheets andvisualizations for several planning scenarios for future sea-level change, in combination with the
100-year floodplain elevation for Tyndall AFB. The site-specific Design Flood Elevation of 14
and 19 feet will ensure new facilities are built at an elevation above mean sea level that balances
long-term risk aversion with minimal cost implications.
Coastal resiliency is one of the most important aspects to the plan. This partnered approach
includes cost-shared investments which combine with DAF FSRM and MILCON investments toattenuate storm energy through natural infrastructure before it reaches built infrastructure. Key
partners in these efforts include the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the UnitedStates Army Corps of Engineers Engineer Research and Development Center, the Readiness andEnvironmental Protection Integration Program, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration, Fish and Wildlife Service, Bay County, the Florida Department of Environmental
Protection, the University of Florida, the Nature Conservancy, and the National Fish and Wildlife
Foundation. Several key low life-cycle cost Engineering with Nature initiatives being explored
include sand fencing, submerged shoreline stabilization, living shorelines, oyster reefs, and marshand seagrass enhancements.
The DAF is incorporating several efforts specifically targeted at increasing resiliency in therebuild as well. Tyndall AFB is partnering with Gulf Power to install a micro-grid, which includes
photovoltaic generation and a battery energy storage system, to provide back-up power to the FirstAir Force (1 AF) / Air Forces Northern (AFNORTH) compound. The 1 AF / AFNORTH HQ,plans, directs, and assesses air and space operations for the North American Aerospace Defense
Command (NORAD), is currently unable to conduct uninterrupted operations should an outage
occur. Another planned facility that directly enhances the Tyndall’s resiliency is the Installation
Resilience Operations Center (IROC).

This capability will optimize facility operations forengineers and enhance situational awareness for first responders by improving the cybersecurity
for sensors and other systems installed across the installation. Sensors installed on facilities acrossthe installation will feed data into the IROC where it will be collected, analyzed, archived andPage 12

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distributed to various operations centers and base leaders to enhance the decision making process
and integrate into existing DAF business systems.

Facility operations personnel will have

improved visibility of the status and condition of installed equipment and first responders will haveinstantaneous awareness of incidents, such as active shooter situations, across the installation.
At Offutt AFB, we are consolidating and relocating facilities to higher ground andincorporating building techniques for facilities that must be rebuilt in lower areas that will
minimize cleanup, recovery cost, and timelines should they flood in the future. To mitigate floodrisk for the Nuclear Command, Control and Communications, Non-kinetic Operations andSecurity Forces campuses, approximately six hundred thousand cubic yards of fill material, or
about forty thousand dump trucks, will be brought in. The elevation of the entire site will be raised
to at least three feet above the 100-year floodplain. Though a significant effort, it will ensure
personnel working out of these facilities can continue to execute this national strategic mission
should Offutt AFB experience flooding in the future. Other features include elevating criticalbuilding systems above the first floor or to the roof to reduce the vulnerability and using building
materials on the first floor less susceptible to damage when exposed to water.
Recent extreme winter storms throughout much of the Midwest and southern United States had
a considerable impact on DAF installations. Initial assessments indicate some degree of damage
directly attributable to the storms at 28 installations. The DAF continues to assess the damage andwill restore facilities to full mission capability. Though the intensity of recent winter storms wasabnormal, DAF installations proactively prepare for extreme weather. Some preparatory actions
are considered just-in-time, such as winterization of facilities and adjustments to work schedules
and shop manning levels. Others are routine and continual processes, such as maintenance offacilities and generators, coordination with local utility providers, and implementation ofcontingency plans. Preparatory actions also include longer-term infrastructure investment efforts
to modernize and recapitalize infrastructure and execute projects to improve facility and energy
resiliency. The DAF will continue to assess installation preparations and response actions related
to these historic storms, but several overarching themes have already emerged.
A majority of the damage was the result of ruptured water or fire suppression lines due tofreezing. Not only must the damaged lines be repaired, so must the damage to the facility causedby flooding from broken pipes. When this occurs, water must be shut off to the facility until repairs
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are completed. Depending on the severity of water breaks, larger portions of the installation may
be impacted as well. Prior to the storms, installations enacted just-in-time winterization measuresin an attempt to limit damage. Some of these measures include ensuring facility doors andwindows were secured to retain as much heat as possible, slow dripping faucets and running toilets
to reduce stagnant water, which is more susceptible to freezing, and installing additional insulation
on critical infrastructure such as water system pumps. These just-in-time preparations andwinterization actions reduced utility system interruptions and damage, but did not eliminate it.
In many cases winterization actions, especially at installations in more southern locations
where sub-freezing temperatures are uncommon, were simply not enough. Many facilities in theselocations are not designed or constructed to handle sustained sub-freezing temperatures.
Numerous facilities were constructed in accordance with building codes requiring less insulation
than that required for facilities located in areas were cold is more common. Installations in Texas
experienced the most significant water break issues, but this type of damage was not limited to thesouth. Installations in locations where harsh winter conditions are common start general facility
winterization in late fall, minimizing just-in-time preparations before anticipated abnormally cold
weather. Many installations that are used to sustained sub-freezing temperatures, such as FE
Warren AFB in Wyoming, Minot AFB in North Dakota, Malmstrom AFB in Montana, andPeterson AFB in Colorado, still experienced frozen water or fire suppression lines that caused
damage, just to a lesser degree.
Facility condition is another factor that led to damage. Degraded roofs, walls, windows,
and doors can provide a pathway for moisture to enter the facility, which can freeze and further
damage the facility. Degradation of these building components also can prevent the facility fromretaining heat well, requiring heating systems to work harder to keep the facility warm. In many
instances, degraded heating systems could not keep up and failed, leading to sub-freezing
temperature within a facility and frozen water lines. The DAF has continually accepted risk ininstallation investment leaving facilities and infrastructure in a degraded condition. Leveraging
our long-term Infrastructure Investment Strategy (I2S), the DAF is seeking to restore the conditionof facilities and infrastructure and enhance resiliency by proactive upgrades through targetedfacility investments informed by analytics, stabilized funding, application of evolving building

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codes, and improved processes such as more standardized building components through category
management.
Coordination with utility providers, installation back-up power and water plans, and past
infrastructure investments minimized the scope and impact of outages. DAF installations rely on
local utility providers as the primary source of power and water. As a result, if the community
experiences interruptions during a storm, the base is also at risk of losing service. As installations
are very much part of the surrounding communities, partnerships and working relationships withlocal utility companies are critical. Installations are constantly engaging with utility partners toensure common understanding of needs, identify risks, find solutions which mutually benefit the
installation and surrounding community, and synchronize response procedures should tointerruptions or outages occur.
During the recent winter storms, several installations experienced limited power or waterinterruptions consistent with interruptions experienced by the local communities. Effective priorcoordination helped minimize downtime. Several installations were able to effectively partnerwith local electrical power providers to minimize outages and mitigate impacts the installations.
72nd Air Base Wing Civil Engineer personnel at Tinker AFB communicated routinely with thelocal electrical power provider prior to and during the storm to ensure continuity of operations.
The team took extraordinary measures to reduce heat set points in facilities across the installationand monitor them throughout the storm. These efforts significantly reduced the installation’senergy consumption helping the utility provider stabilize the power grid and minimize rolling
blackouts. Additionally, Offutt AFB and Altus AFB in Oklahoma were each able to coordinate
with the local electrical power provider to conduct electrical load curtailment by operating on-baseback-up power plants. The efforts lowered the installations’ demand on the local power grid,enabling the utility provider to better support surging demand in the community.
In addition to power and water provided by local utility companies, installations must havesecondary sources to support mission critical operations should local supplies be interrupted.
Secondary power is primarily provided by a combination of back-up generators installed on criticalfacilities and mobile generators which can be relocated as required to respond to changing
conditions. Electrical power back-up plans were generally effective during the recent storms tominimize the impact of power interruptions to installations or localized outages on an installation.
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Several installations, including Minot AFB, North Dakota, Laughlin AFB, Texas, and Barksdale
AFB, Louisiana, temporarily lost commercial power, but generators operated as designed tosupport mission requirements. One of the more critical instances where back-up generators
ensured mission success was at Minot AFB. A portion of the missile field lost commercial power
but back-up generators effectively kept the facilities operational until commercial power was
restored.
Installations also maintain reserve water supplies, generally in buried or above groundtanks, in case of outages or emergencies and in some cases operate water wells as a secondary
source. During recent storms, there were few instances where water supply to an installation wasinterrupted. There were numerous instances of localized outages which were caused by water
distribution line breaks on installations or the need to shut off water to select facilitates to address
broken pipes due to freezing. With few exceptions, reserve water supplies were able to support
mission critical operations. The most notable issue was at Dyess AFB, Texas. Due to an off-basepower outage, which did not directly impact the installation, the city of Abilene was unable toprovide water for 24 hours. The installation’s emergency reserve water tanks were drained fasterthan expected due to numerous water line breaks in facilities around the installations. The
installation was forced to turn off water when the emergency tanks reached 10% in order topreserve the remaining water for firefighting capabilities.
The DAF has made effective past infrastructure investments, some in collaboration withutility providers, which have enhanced installation resiliency. Projects have been executed to
specifically enhance power and water distribution infrastructure, install secondary or back-up
power sources, and add redundancy to distribution systems through looped and cross-connected
designs or connections to additional utility provider systems. Efforts to relocate overhead powerlines underground in order to decrease the vulnerabilities of environmental conditions on theelectrical distribution network have dramatically decreased power outages during wind or ice
storms. Installation of back-fed circuits have allowed power to be re-routed in case of a localized
outage or the need for maintenance or repair. Installations impacted by recent storms, such as
Vance AFB, Oklahoma, Altus AFB, Little Rock AFB, Arkansas, Scott AFB, Illinois, Cannon
AFB, New Mexico, and Grand Forks AFB, North Dakota, have invested significant funds over thelast several years to enhance their electrical distribution systems by burying power lines andPage 16

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installing back-fed capabilities. Barksdale AFB is an example of an installation where connection
to a secondary water provider paid off. When Barksdale’s primary water source from Shreveport
was compromised, the installation was able to switch to the city of Bossier, its back-up provider,
for water. The redundancy provided by an alternate water supply minimized the length of arequired boil water notice on Barksdale AFB.
MILCON Investments
Each MILCON project incorporates aspects of installation resilience through theapplication of updated UFCs during design and construction. Facilities designed and built inaccordance with the latest standards are more resilient to the threats posed by climate change andsevere weather. Most of our current mission MILCON projects replace facilities which no longer
support mission requirements or are outdated and susceptible to climate and severe weather threats
due to their age, condition, or the fact they were build using now outdated design criteria. Energy
resilience is most directly addressed through ERCIP projects or efforts leveraging third-party
financing such as EALs, ESPCs, and UESCs.
In FY20, the DAF undertook several resiliency related projects including designs for sevenprojects in Florida, Hawaii, South Carolina, Nebraska, North Dakota, Germany, and Japan. In
FY21, the DAF funded designs for projects at Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling in Washington D.C.
and another on Wake Island. All of these projects will address a resilience risk associated with anatural or manmade threat to the installation. In addition to funding project designs, FY21 funds
were also used to enable technical analysis in support of tri-service UFC updates specific toinstallation resilience.
Conclusion
Ready and resilient installations are at the core of Air Force and Space Force mission
success. Not only do we launch missions from our installations, they are the platform on whichmore than 300,000 Total Force personnel organize, train, and equip and are home for thousands ofAirmen, Guardians, and their families. Natural disasters and severe weather have impacted DAF
installations across the world over the years and that threat is not going away. Tackling the current
climate crisis is a matter of national security and the DAF is committed to ensuring our installations
are protected against the threats posed by deliberate, accidental, or naturally occurring events andPage 17

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that our personnel are able to respond and recover our installations should an event occur. We
have learned and adapted after each impacting event and we are taking proactive action to enhance
installation resilience across the enterprise.
We incorporate installation resilience in all aspects of operations, approaching it from four
fronts: energy, cyber, infrastructure, and response. Energy, to include electricity, natural gas andwater, is essential to mission accomplishment. Our focus is on secure the ability to perform ourwarfighting mission in the face of disruptions to traditional energy sources while simultaneously
optimizing availability and productivity through better planning and technology and process
improvements. Our cyber resilience efforts, from an installations perspective, focus on preventing,detecting, and responding to unauthorized access to DAF facility-related control systems, such as
those associated with power and water distribution, back-up generators, and HVAC
systems. Infrastructure efforts ensure the installations themselves are ready now and in the
future. Our focus is on limiting damage and recovery time following an event. We construct new
facilities with MILCON and modernize existing facilities with FSRM using the latest design codes,
which are routinely updated to address climate and weather risks. The DAF I2S guides investment
decisions and business processes to restore the condition of our facilities and infrastructure so thatthat they are better able to weather a storm. We are also embracing innovating approaches tonatural infrastructure, capitalizing on partnerships with other government and non-government
agencies to enhance installation resiliency.
The effectiveness of all of the planning and execution that goes into enhancing theresiliency of our installations is minimized if our more valuable resource, our people, are
not ready to respond. Emergency management, disaster response, and continuity ofoperations planning is essential to ensure an installation and its people can respond andrecover from an incident quickly while continuing to execute the mission or, in more
extreme situations, minimizing downtime. Our holistic approach to installation resilience
is what ensures the Air Force and Space Forces can provide timely and effective combat
capability.

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