ASIP: Construction Planning and Budgeting, the Army Way
By Dan Aloisi

Construction planning and the budgeting of base operations services in the Army depend on the answers to a few key questions. What populations reside on Army Installations now? How are these populations projected to change in the future?

That’s why the Army Stationing and Installation Plan (ASIP) was developed. A comprehensive coordination database, ASIP supports the Army's Installation Management community as well as the staff of Headquarters, Department of the Army.

ASIP has been a VISTA project since its inception in the late 1980s. The relevance and reliability of the database has been recognized throughout the Army – and it has been used for everything from determining how many sets of body armor to ship to Fort Bragg to determining the proper size of the bowling alley at Aberdeen Proving Grounds.

Today’s changing Army – and how to manage it

Numerous stationing changes have taken place in the Army since the beginning of the current century. For example, starting in 2002, the Army has been converting its division-based structure (left over from 20th century Cold War doctrine) to a more nimble brigade-based structure formed to respond to 21st century conflicts. In 2005, Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) law directed the Army to close facilities, move units, and redefine the missions of installations Army-wide by 2011.

The Army has re-assessed its global stationing strategy and decided to significantly decrease overseas stationing during this decade; the decision will result in the movement of many Army units back to installations in the continental US. Finally, Congress has directed the Army to add six more combat brigades and the associated combat support units (adding some 65,000 additional soldiers as compared to 2003 strength levels). These additional soldiers must be provided for by growing the installation infrastructure, while remaining within the constraints of the 2005 BRAC law.

All of these changes have shone the spotlight on ASIP as the Army’s most significant database for managing change on Army installations. ASIP is the Army’s primary coordination database for military construction planning and services, and for providing reports and updates to Congress. ASIP also is proving useful for planning in the local communities nearby Army installations, so these communities can plan for increased school and municipal requirements to support Army families.

The most recent data, updated quarterly

In response to growing needs for current data, ASIP follows a quarterly update cycle, with strong coordination among Army staff sections. IMCOM Regions, Army Reserve Commands, National Guard States and Army installations are responsible for the update and accuracy of the ASIP database. A worldwide group of some 500 editors reviews and updates the information. The editing process is done within context of the Army’s force structure, training and personnel projections and governed closely by rules to maintain the integrity of the source data.

Because the capability of auditing data back to the source is key in this process, ASIP uses data from the Army’s force structure, personnel management, schools, and training systems (among many others). To fill out the resident populations, the ASIP database also includes other tenants on Army installations, such as Federal agencies, other military service units, and contractors. Finally, the ASIP team integrates the average loads for students and trainees at Army schools, rotational loads at training installations, and other transient activities.

Because the accuracy of data collection has been vetted throughout the Army staff, ASIP has been designated the Army’s Common Operating Picture – that is, the database of record for installation populations and projection of changes to that population.

This capability of projecting population changes has had direct application in ASIP’s use as a platform for strategic human capital planning by the Army Installation Management Command (IMCOM). As projections for installation populations are fine-tuned, a manpower task force within IMCOM is using the ASIP to determine the size and composition of the installation garrison units needed to service populations at hundreds of installations worldwide.

ASIP presentation, reporting and feedback

ASIP data is presented in a Web application that allows for query and reporting of current and historical data dating back to 1993. Currently, over 3,000 Army soldiers, civilian employees, and contractors have access to the data – as well as standard reports, spreadsheets, and dynamically configured reports.

Recent improvements have allowed users to share views and queries of data with other users through the configuration of customized queries. The ASIP Web application is accessed by hundreds of people on a daily basis, serving thousands of views of data, reports, spreadsheets, and queries.

The ASIP team has increased the level of feedback to force structure, training, personnel, and other systems over the last year. Often the most personnel knowledgeable about current stationing of units are those in the installation management community; local decisions may not be reflected in HQ data systems. ASIP feeds back to the source data systems to improve the Army’s corporate data quality.

Dan Aloisi is a Project Manager for VISTA, and a member of the company’s Management Team. He can be reached at 703-561-4148, or dan.aloisi@vistatsi.com.