ARE MORE P3s ON THE WAY?

Association of Defense Communities: Defense Communities 360

Look for the Pentagon to consider expanding the public-private partnership model it relied on to recapitalize the military’s family housing to other types of defense infrastructure under the next administration. “No matter who wins, we’re going to be taking a fresh look as these kinds of things,” Peter Potochney, acting assistant secretary of defense for energy, installations and environment, said during a panel discussion Tuesday at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). “I don’t think there’s anybody who doesn’t think it’s a great thing, and it’s worked well, and it’s saved us money, and it’s gotten soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines better housing than they had before,” he said, reported DOD News. The primary challenge to expanding privatization to other realms is resistance from “warfighters” who view turning over DOD functions to the private sector as losing control over that activity. “What we have to learn from that,” Potochney said, “is how do we look at new opportunities in ways that our leadership, our warfighting leadership, will understand, so that they will accept new private sector ventures?”