Installation Resilience 

A TOOL TO SUPPORT MILITARY MISSION SUSTAINMENT

Overview

The Office of Local Defense Community 

Cooperation’s Installation Resilience program 

enables states and communities to partner with their 

local installations and the Military Departments 

to collectively, as “one community,” respond to 

either the encroachment of a civilian community 

or threats to installation resilience that are likely 

to impair the continued operational utility of 

the military installation. Factors impacting an 

installation’s resiliency may also impact the local 

defense industrial base so these program efforts can 

have far reaching benefits for the local mission. This 

program also merges previous installation resilience 

and compatible use (formerly the Joint Land Use 

Study, or JLUS) elements into one broader program 

continuum.

Program Goals

• A cooperative, community-driven planning effort 

that leverages the capabilities and strengths of 

state and local governments to address resilience 

and encroachment risks;

• Protect and enhance the public health, safety, 

and general welfare of those living and working 

near an active military installation, noting that, on 

average, up to 70 percent of an installation’s force 

resides in the surrounding civilian communities 

– commuting to work on local roads occupying 

privately-owned housing, and attending local 

education facilities;

• Protect and enhance military readiness and 

defense capabilities while supporting continued 

community economic development; and,

• Enhance civilian and military communication and 

collaboration.

Program Activities

Installation Resilience program activities are 

designed to support the organizing, planning, and 

implementation actions necessary to foster, protect, 

and enhance the sustainability of our military 

installations (including testing and training ranges, 

special use airspace, military operations areas, 

and/or military training routes) and related defense 

industrial base. Local civilian jurisdictions partner 

with their local installations as “one community” 

to identify man-made or natural threats across the 

community that are likely to impair the continued 

operational utility of local military installations, 

and then plan and carry out responses to enhance 

infrastructure and other resilience measures, as well 

as projects involving the protection, restoration, 

and maintenance of natural features. This may also 

include integrating installation and related defense 

industrial base vulnerabilities with local mitigation 

program and risk management program planning 

under the Federal Emergency Management Agency. 

It enables a “one community” response through 

a collaborative Federal, state, local, and private 

effort to optimize the capacities and resources each 

can bring to the effort and requires the civilian 

leaders and their military counterparts to not let an 

installation fence line distract or otherwise disrupt 

responses to vulnerabilities locally.

These program activities establish or reinforce an 

ongoing collaboration between civilian (public and 

private) and military equities that endures beyond 

the term of any project. Program activities encourage 

planning and collaboration to analyze options for the 

situation, adopt a strategy, and implement actions. 

Projects may include the following:

• a comprehensive review of natural and man-made 

threats and vulnerabilities;

• targeted studies or plans concerning, but not 

limited to, transportation, land use/encroachment, 

utility services, housing, stormwater management, 

sewer, and communications; and,

• table-top exercises with local military and 

civilian (public and private) leadership to review 

capacities of hard infrastructure and public 

services to respond to natural and/or man-made 

UPDATED: SEPTEMBER 13, 2023
disruptions – including help for military and 

civilian leaders alike to recognize what they do 

not otherwise know.

Communities may also undertake compatible 

use studies to comprehensively understand 

the concerns of a military installation around 

encroachment, opportunities for civilian growth, 

and to develop actions that work in concert with the 

installation’s mission.

Project managers with the Office of Local Defense 

Community Cooperation may work with potential 

applicants to provide guidance during the 

application process.

Examples of Resilience Factors

Flooding & Tidal Surge Water Availability

Wind Stormwater

Drought Wastewater

Wildfire Installation and 

Operational Energy

Seismic Foreign Investment

Tornadic/Tropical Storm Transportation

Community Infrastructure Installation Access

Winter Storm Communications

Air Space and Land Uses Energy Siting Compatibility

Noise Income-Based Housing

Urban Growth Cultural Resources

Spectrum Encroachment Marine Resources

Endangered Species Security

Eligibility

States, counties, municipalities, other political 

subdivisions of a state; special purpose units of a 

state or local government; other instrumentalities of 

a state or local government; and tribal nations are 

eligible if the Office of Local Defense Community 

Cooperation determines there is a threat to military 

installation resilience and/or encroachment of 

a civilian origin on the local military mission 

that involves, or may be significantly impacted 

by, resources or activities outside of the military 

installation, and that this threat is likely to impair 

the installation’s ability to maintain, improve, or 

rapidly reestablish installation mission assurance 

and mission-essential functions.

There are two ways a community can participate in 

Installation Resilience program activities:

• Service Nomination Process. The Military 

Services may nominate installation(s) for 

assistance through annual requests or may also 

nominate installations out of cycle. 

• Community Nomination Process. State and local 

governments may submit an inquiry to the Office 

of Local Defense Community Cooperation.

The Office of Local Defense Community 

Cooperation will evaluate existing or potential 

resilience and encroachment issues to determine if a 

project is reasonable and beneficial to supporting the 

military mission.

End State

Through the community-driven planning process, 

adjacent communities and often the state, in 

partnership with the installation, identify and 

evaluate a wide range of existing and potential 

future resilience risks and impacts that may impair 

the operations of the Department of Defense. 

Installation resilience projects are expected to 

identify specific recommendations for stakeholder 

action, to include establishing, or continuing, a 

dialogue with the military installation so they 

can act as “one community” to ensure military 

installation resilience continues to be monitored and 

sustained.

For More Information

Sign up for email updates on Installation 

Resilience and other OLDCC programs by visiting 

OLDCC.gov/contact-us and clicking on Stay 

Connected to OLDCC, or by clicking here. 

U.S. Department of Defense

Office of Local Defense Community Cooperation

2231 Crystal Drive, Suite 520

Arlington, VA 22202

(703) 697-2130

UPDATED: SEPTEMBER 13, 2023