Alternatives to Vieques

Military activity on the island of Vieques has recently become a contentious political issue, putting its future as a naval training facility in doubt. To prepare for the possibility that pre-deployment training will have to be conducted elsewhere in the future, the Secretary of the Navy tasked CNA to examine alternatives to Vieques that that could be made available within approximately five years. The analytical approach is basically a three-step process: 1) analyze the training operations that are endangered by the potential loss of Vieques to determine what range attributes would be required to conduct those operations elsewhere; 2) survey existing and potential ranges to determine what range attributes could be made available (this step includes a survey of alternative training technologies, e.g. simulation, to determine what role they can play; and 3) compare the required range attributes from step one with the available range attributes from step two to identify the most promising Viequea alternatives. The specific methodologies for conducting these steps are also described.