Military test and training ranges are used primarily to test weapon systems and to train military forces. Test ranges are used to evaluate warfighting systems and functions in a natural environment and under simulated operational conditions. Training ranges include air ranges for air-to-air, air-to-ground, drop zone, and electronic combat training; live-fire ranges for artillery, armor, small arms, and munitions training; ground maneuver ranges to conduct realistic force-on-force and live-fire training; and sea ranges to conduct ship or submarine maneuvers. In February 2014, DOD reported to Congress that it had 533 test and training ranges throughout the United States and overseas. These included 456 Army ranges, of which 384 were in the United States; 23 Navy ranges, of which 18 were in the United States; 40 Air Force ranges, of which 35 were in the United States; and 14 Marine Corps ranges, of which 13 were in the United States. Figure 1 shows the location of major DOD test and training ranges throughout the United States as of June 2014. Before DOD can determine whether a project or transaction poses a potential security threat to a range by providing a foreign entity a permanent platform for observing operations, it must first become aware of the proposed project or transaction. Multiple federal entities may be involved in identifying and approving potential business activities near DOD ranges. DOD, working with these federal entities, uses multiple methods to determine what activities are occurring in proximity to its ranges. None of these methods, with the exception of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), discussed below, was designed to consider security concerns. The following entities and processes are available to DOD to become aware of and gather information on projects located near ranges. CFIUS, an interagency committee chaired by the Department of the Treasury and including DOD as a member, reviews certain covered transactions to assess the impact on national security of foreign control of U.S. companies, such as by considering the control of domestic industries and commercial activity by foreign citizens as it affects the capability and capacity of the United States to meet the requirements of national security. DOD has the opportunity to comment on these transactions, including raising any security concerns. For more information on CFIUS, see appendix II. The Bureau of Land Management within the Department of the Interior administers over 245 million acres of federal land for a variety of uses, including energy development, recreation, and timber harvesting. The Bureau issues a wide variety of permits, licenses, or leases for use of public land, including permits and leases for energy development, and administers mining claims. According to Bureau of Land Management and DOD officials, local Bureau of Land Management personnel may work with DOD installations within their jurisdictions to notify them of projects in proximity to the installation and test and training ranges. In some cases, the office may notify the installation when leases are issued or projects are proposed in proximity to test and training ranges. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management within the Department of the Interior promotes energy independence and economic development and manages the natural resources of the Outer Continental Shelf, including oil and gas, marine minerals, and renewable energy. Under a 1983 Memorandum of Agreement, the Bureau and DOD consult to resolve conflicts between Outer Continental Shelf exploration and development and the requirements for DOD to use the Outer Continental Shelf for national defense and security. Following these consultations, DOD and the Department of the Interior agree on areas that may require deferral from leasing or that can be leased subject to lessee advisories or lease stipulations allowing for joint use. The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement within the Department of the Interior works to promote safety, protect the environment, and conserve resources offshore through regulatory oversight and enforcement. Key functions of the Bureau include oil and gas permitting, facility inspections, regulations and standards development, safety research, data collection, technology assessments, field operations, incident investigation, environmental compliance and enforcement, and oil spill prevention and readiness. The Federal Aviation Administration within the Department of Transportation works to provide a safe and efficient aerospace system and reviews proposed structures for obstruction concerns. In addition, parties proposing any project over 200 feet in height or within certain distances of an airport or runway are required by law and regulation to provide notice and certain project information to the Federal Aviation Administration. As part of its evaluation process, the Federal Aviation Administration’s obstruction evaluation system automatically notifies interested agencies, including DOD and the individual military services, based on the agencies’ preferences. DOD’s Siting Clearinghouse, which was set up to work with renewable energy project developers to mitigate encroachment concerns at DOD installations, is automatically notified about all renewable energy projects filed with the Federal Aviation Administration. The National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 process requires environmental reviews of certain actions on federally controlled land. As part of this process, the public must be notified of impending action on federal land and is invited to comment. DOD may be included as a cooperating agency when a project is located near a DOD installation or when there is an identified DOD interest involved. Community Planning and Liaison Officers at Navy and Marine Corps installations establish relationships with nearby communities and local governments, and provide a mechanism by which the installations can become aware of and address any concerns stemming from proposed projects near ranges. These entities and processes may apply to a wide variety of activities that can occur in proximity to DOD test and training ranges, including renewable and conventional energy projects, mineral extraction (mining), and oil and natural gas exploration. For example, the Bureau of Land Management grants mining rights on federal land near DOD ranges. Moreover, as discussed above, the Bureau also administers minerals mining claims, including those in proximity to DOD’s test and training ranges. Figure 2 shows the mining claims on federal land outside of the Fallon Training Range Complex in Nevada. Similar to the large number of mining claims near the Fallon Range Training Complex, there is also extensive oil and gas exploration in the Gulf of Mexico near many onshore Navy and Air Force installations, including Eglin Air Force Base, where DOD set up the Integrated Training Center for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. In 2006, Congress passed the Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act of 2006of the Gulf of Mexico to new oil and gas leasing, but also placed a moratorium on oil and gas leases in portions of the gulf, in part to avoid which opened several areas interfering with DOD’s training mission.gas activity as of October 2013 in the Gulf of Mexico and the moratorium area. Our prior work has shown that utilizing a risk management approach allows an agency to more effectively prioritize its resources and enhance its ability to respond to a threat. Under DOD Instruction 3020.45, DOD utilizes a risk management approach to manage its critical infrastructure program. According to DOD, risk management is the process of identifying, assessing, and controlling risks arising from operational factors and making decisions that balance risk cost with mission benefits. A key step in this approach is to conduct a risk assessment to provide a way to continuously evaluate and prioritize risks and recommend strategies for mitigation. DOD’s risk assessment process has three core elements: criticality, vulnerability, and threats. Criticality identifies the consequence of the loss of a particular asset based on national security concerns or the impact to DOD’s missions. A criticality assessment identifies key assets and infrastructure that support DOD missions, units, or activities and are deemed mission critical by military commanders or civilian agency managers. Vulnerability is a weakness or susceptibility of an installation, system, asset, application, or its dependencies that could cause it to suffer a degradation or loss as a result of having been subjected to a certain level of threat or hazard. A vulnerability assessment is a systematic examination of the characteristics of an installation, system, asset, or its dependencies to identify vulnerabilities. Threats refer to an adversary having the intent, capability, and opportunity to cause loss or damage. DOD has not conducted a risk assessment that includes prioritizing ranges based on mission criticality, determining their vulnerabilities to foreign encroachment, and assessing the degree to which foreign encroachment could pose a threat to the mission of the ranges. As a result, the department does not know the extent to which foreign encroachment poses a threat to its test and training ranges. Neither DOD nor the services have determined which of their ranges are the most critical to protect or assessed any vulnerabilities and threats posed by foreign encroachment. As discussed above, utilizing a risk management approach, which includes conducting a risk assessment, allows an agency to more effectively prioritize its resources and enhance its ability to respond to a threat. A DOD instruction governing its critical infrastructure program states that determining the criticality of key assets is a core element of conducting a risk assessment.provides a framework that could be used to manage critical infrastructure across the department, it does not specifically mention risk assessment in relation to foreign encroachment. Rather, it establishes policy to manage the identification, prioritization, and assessment of defense critical infrastructure as a comprehensive program. Therefore, this instruction could be used by DOD as a model for how to deal with the issue of foreign encroachment. Navy and Air Force officials said that the lack of an established methodology or criteria, as well as the unique mission capabilities of each range, make it difficult to determine the relative criticality of each range as it relates to foreign encroachment, including which ranges would be the most valuable collection points for foreign adversaries trying to gather intelligence and which ranges house the most sensitive test and training activities. In addition, the services do not have guidance on how to conduct such an assessment because the issue of foreign encroachment is new. However, DOD has resolved similar challenges in the past. For instance, in an October 2009 review of DOD’s management of electrical disruptions, we found that DOD had not developed guidelines for addressing the unique challenges related to conducting some vulnerability assessments of electrical power assets.