what might have been coordinated had the assignments now in effect been in effect on July 1, 1948, and implemented without exception during the entire fiscal year 1949. Further, the figures are based on estimated planned procurements rather than actual purchases. The figure of 80.7 percent should be further qualified in view of the fact that certain items assigned may develop administrative and interpretational problems that may result in cancellation of the assignment. Furthermore, emergency and limited local purchase will be permitted in almost all groups of commodities. There is also enclosed (tab 2) a detailed listing of the United States standard commodity classification groups which are included in "Single department procurement" and "Joint procurement." (Tab 1, 1 page; tab 2, 23 pages, are as follows:) ABBREVIATIONS USED IN THE PURCHASE ASSIGNMENTS IN EFFECT Department of the Army QM-Quartermaster Corps. TC-Transportation Corps. SIG-Signal Corps. Department of the Navy MARCOR-Marine Corps. MC-Marine Corps. BUS&A-Bureau of Supplies and Accounts. BUORD-Bureau of Ordnance. BUDOCK-Bureau of Yards and Docks. BUY&D-Bureau of Yards and Docks. BUMED-Bureau of Medicine and Surgery. BUSHIP-Bureau of Ships. BUAIR-Bureau of Aeronautics. Department of the Air Force AMC-Air Matériel Command. ASPPA-Armed Services Petroleum Purchasing Agency. ANMP-Army-Navy Medical Purchasing Agency (recently changed to Armed Services Procurement Agency). THE SECRETARY OF DEFENSE, Hon. MILLARD E. TYDINGS, Chairman, Committee on Armed Services, United States Senate. DEAR MR. CHAIRMAN: I am enclosing a summary table and a detailed memorandum of dollar savings that have been realized or are expected from positive action taken since the passage of the National Security Act, as referred to in my letter of March 24, 1949. The total savings in this category amount to $60,291,936, representing an increase of $3,774,515 over the total of $56,517,421 reported in the March 26, 1949, press release which I submitted to you last Thursday. The increased savings reported reflect information received subsequent to those reported in the February 16, 1949, Munitions Board report on "Elimination of duplication and over-. lapping," on which the release to the press was based. The figures given in this report include only those estimated savings which are the result of completed studies and investigations or portions thereof upon which final action in the form of implementing directives, formal agreements, or other unification measures has been taken. The savings evaluated and reported at this time have accrued or will accrue to the National Military Establishment in terms of one-time (immediate, nonrecurring), or annually recurring amounts. Sincerely yours, JAMES FORRESTAL. Summary table of estimated surveys as a result of unification measures as of Mar. 28, 1949 A brief description of unification projects comprising the above general categories is provided in the pages which follow. SUMMARY DESCRIPTION OF UNIFICATION PROJECTS ON WHICH ACTION HAS BEEN TAKEN EFFECTING ESTIMATED ANNUAL OR ONE-TIME MONETARY SAVINGS 1. AMMUNITION HANDLING The Departments of the Army and the Navy have cooperated in effecting and implementing agreements whereby more economical and safer handling of ammunition is effected at several ammunition-handling activities. Monetary savings effected under these agreements have been estimated on two projects which are given below as examples in this category of unified action. The Navy outloads Army ammunition produced at the Raritan Arsenal from the Navy Ammunition Depot, Earle, N. J. (in lieu of previous handlings through the New York area) at an estimated annual savings of $10,000 to $50,000. The Naval Ammunition Depot, Bangor, Wash., and the naval magazine, Port Chicago, Calif., handles Army's transshipment of ammunition, thereby permitting closure of the Beaver ammunition storage point, Klatskanie, Oreg, and elimination of monthly expenditures of $38,000. 2. CATALOGING Accelerated development and integration of a unified cataloging system for all items of supply and equipment in the National Military Establishment is progressing under the coordinating guidance of the Munitions Board cataloging agency in compliance with the National Security Act of 1947, the Secretary of Defense directive dated June 9, 1948, to the Munitions Board, and with policies and procedures established thereunder by that Board. The unified system will replace the 15 systems now in use and will eliminate approximately 50 percent of the 5,000,000 items presently cataloged, thus providing a common supply language for the three services. Substantial economies will result from reduction in personnel, inventory and storage requirements, procurement and transportation costs. The system will permit ready exchange of material between the departments. Even more important than the over-all monetary savings anticipated is the increased combat efficiency to result. While no over-all estimate of monetary savings to be achieved is available at this stage of development, the Navy has conservatively estimated that annual savings of $1,411,800 will accrue from completed cataloging effort on its Bureau of Ships' material alone, and that an additional one-time net savings of $15,000,000 to the Navy out of its estimated gross savings of $33,000,000 will prove to have been effected during this development period. 3.. COLD STORAGE The Army and Navy have completed and are operating plans for Army utilization of Navy operated and owned cold-storage plants at Cheatam Annex, Williamsburg, Va., and Bayonne, N. J., at estimated annual savings to the Government of $500,000 to $700,000. In addition, joint Army-Navy utilization, approved and implemented, of cold-storage facilities in the San Francisco and Seattle areas in effecting annual savings estimated at $550,000. 4. COMMUNICATIONS Of 32 unification projects completed in the field of communications, estimates of monetary savings effected are available at this time on the following: Joint Air Force-Navy use of Navy's Washington-Balboa, C. Z. multichannel radio circuit, one-time savings of $70,000, plus an additional annual savings of $4,200 resulting from joint utilization of local communications facilities; joint ArmyNavy use of Army's radio station, Asmara, Eritrea, one-time saving of $75,000 in lieu of Navy providing separate facilities; Joint Army-Air Force lease of two commercial radio teletype channels, Washington-London, at $9,000 a month savings; consolidation of Army Transport Command and Naval Air Transport Service into MATS with annual savings of $352,469 to Navy's maintenance, Bureau of Ships, in communications costs; joint-service combining and use of teletype circuits in Fourth Army area, annual savings of $35,043.60; Army maintenance of Biggs Air Force Base, El Paso, Tex., teletypewriter equipment, annual savings, $2,460; Joint Army-Navy consolidation of radio link equipment at Army radio station, Mauna Kapu, Oahu, one-time savings $69,000 plus annual savings of $3,000; Joint Army-Navy improvement of communication control lines at Oahu, annual savings of $32,800; single-service telephone trunking responsibility on Oahu, $10,100 annual savings, plus an additional $15,000 annual savings accruing from joint Army-Navy use of Army-owned cables, inter-base trunk lines and extension of commercial trunks to Navy installations in Hawaii. Agreed joint use of telephone facilities between Navy's Naval Ammunition Depot, Lake Denmark and Army's Picatinny Arsenal eliminated Navy's switchboard at an annual savings of $12,000. 5. CONSTRUCTION Construction performed by one service for another under joint agreements has effected a total one-time savings of $806,000 in elimination of partial or entire overhead for one or the other services in the following projects: Navy constructed a joint-use cold-storage building and other facilities for the Army at Adak, and Air Force facilities near Point Barrow, Alaska. On Guam, Navy housing designs are used by the Army and Navy's housing production plant (produces concrete sidings, floors) had sufficient capacity for the Army's needs. The Army con structed a BOQ for the Navy at Sangley Point, Philippines. Within the continental United States the Army is performing dredging work for the Navy and at the White Sands Proving Ground, Las Cruces, N. Mex. is handling the design and construction of housing facilities and telemetering facilities. 6. FOOD SERVICE An agreement was effected whereby the Army's Food and Container Institute at Chicago would undertake the Navy's required research in this field, which re sulted in elimination of $900,000 from the Navy's fiscal year 1949 budget request, effecting a one-time savings in that amount. Even greater savings, accurate estimates of which are not available at this time, are expected from agreements effected for joint utilization of the institute's facilities and services by both the Navy and the Air Force. The consolidated Army, Navy, and Air Force mess at Camp Detrick is satel lited on Fort George G. Meade, Md., at a cost of $1.05 per man per day as against $2.25 per man per day formerly paid in lieu of rations, effecting an annual savings of approximately $77,760. Army-Air Force agreements provide Army's technical service and staff assistance on quartermaster-type services for both Departments Although complete estimates of savings effected under these agreements are not available, one item which includes fat rendering, meat cutting and pastry baking has effected annual savings of $136,000. 7. HOUSING Several interservice agreements have been effected for joint occupancy or exchange of housing facilities which have resulted in economies through greater use of existing facilities or elimination of new construction otherwise required. Although estimates of savings are not available in all of these cases, illustrative examples are given as follows: The Air Force has made 26 housing units available to the Navy at Fort McAndrew, Argentia, Newfoundland. The Navy has made available to Army personnel 140 family housing units at its San Patricio defense housing project in San Juan, P. R., and 80 family units in the Bienville housing project, New Orleans, La. The Army and the Air Force have furnished the Navy housing facilities at three of its urgently needed overseas communications units at savings estimated by the Navy amounting to $320,000 initially (onetime) and $3,200 annually. 8. HYDROGRAPHERS Joint Navy-Air Force participation in the National Facsimile Network for distribution of weather maps, which has been under operational control of the Air Force, has been fully coordinated with other branches of the National Military Establishment and with the Weather Bureau. Estimates of savings effected between difference of costs to the Navy of its operations under the new system as against the old system amount to $159,213 annually. Additional annual savings are effected through elimination of annual expenditures of $20,000 now paid for teletype machines at 54 satellite stations, through use of analyzed maps received by facsimile, in lieu of the mass of heretofore teletyped basic information. 9. LAUNDRY Studies and investigations to effect unification of laundry services within the National Military Establishment extend Nation-wide and overseas in scope. Of the agreements and actions completed thereunder to date, estimates of savings effected are available in the following cases: Under joint Army-Air Force agreements, Army laundries in the Fifth Army area are processing approximately 1,150,000 pieces of Air Force laundry per quarter at an estimated annual saving of $288,000. Estimates of savings effected (and possible of being reported at this time), under similar Army-Air Force agreements in other areas total $27,000 annually. A one-time saving in excess of $2,000, not possible of evaluation in terms of possible annual savings, has been made by joint utilization of Army's Quartermaster Corps laundry at Letterman General Hospital during low work periods of the first quarter of fiscal year 1949. Annual savings of $10,000 have been effected through Navy's closure of the Coco Solo, C. Z., laundry, and agreed use in lieu thereof of Army facilities. 10. MEDICAL It has been possible to evaluate in terms of monetary savings only relatively few of the many and greatly diversified actions and agreements effected to date looking toward unification in the medical field. The Armed Services Medical Procurement Agency has carried on joint medical procurement operations in behalf of the three services in the fields of cataloging, specifications standardization, purchase, inspection, industrial mobilization, and medical technical maintenance at an estimated annual saving of $229,350 to the services. The Army has saved the Air Force $192,000 annually under an agreement whereby it furnishes the Air Force 25 veterinarian inspection officers at points of origin for meats for the Air Force. An agreement whereby Army's station hospital at Fort Ord furnished hospitalization to Navy's personnel and dependents. (689 excluding dependents) stationed at the Navy General Staff School, Monterey, Calif., relieved the Navy of constructing a 25-bed station at an initial (one-time) saving of $515,000 and an estimated annual saving of $72,000. 11. MISCELLANEOUS Consolidation or joint use of miscellaneous facilities and services has been effected under sixty-odd projects reported. It is possible at this time to evaluate a few of these projects in terms of monetary savings as follows: Joint Army-Air Force agreements whereby Army Quartermaster Corps provides base maintenance on quartermaster-procured equipment operated by Air Force resulted in estimated initial (one-time) savings of $1,500,000 in elimination of required Air Force shop facilities and shop tools and equipment; Army provides both services with mortuary and cemeterial operating services at annual savings of $194,000, also publication of manuals and films on equipment and supplies at annual savings of $560,000; and, Army's 167th Signal Photo Company's recording of Navy's and Air Force's Camid III and Combine III during August and September 1948 for joint usage saved them at least $2,000 (one-time). The joint Army-Navy agreement permitting the Army's use of sales commissary facilities at the Philadelphia Navy Yard effected at least a one-time savings of $40,000 through elimination of extra Army personnel salaries and transportation (amounting to $24,500 and $15,500), also subsistence for Army's Schuylkill Arsenal, Philadelphia, is obtained under joint agreement from the Philadelphia Navy Yard at an annual saving of $6,000. In the Fifth Army area joint Army-Air Force use of Army's repairs and utilities services at five Air Force installations effected approximate one-time savings of $47,000, and Army acquired 40,000 square feet of rent-free space at five different Air Force and Coast Guard stations for use of its Organized Reserve Corps at an annual savings of $21,000. Agreements for joint use and cross-servicing of miscellaneous facilities and services have effected annual savings as follows: Seattle area, $978,450; debarkation facilities at Fort Mason, San Francisco, $13,750; Charleston, S. C. area $41,875. The Army's directed moves to Government-owned property of its motor vehicles in New York (from leased space), and its San Francisco district engineers will effect annual savings estimated respectively at $15,600 and from $56,800 to $124,800 (minimum figure used). 12. CLOTHING AND EQUIPAGE Following a study of the methods of supplying clothing and equipage to military personnel a directive to the three Departments was signed by the Secretary of Defense on December 20, 1948, which provides for: (a) The ultimate adoption of a uniform military clothing allowance system for all three Departments. (b) On July 1, 1949, as an interim measure, the adoption by the Marine Corps of the present naval monetary allowance system and by the Army and Air Force of a monetary clothing allowance system on a credit basis until the uniform system is developed. This action has effected an estimated annual savings to the Government amounting to $8,015,690. 13. ORDNANCE Mine test work formerly carried on by the Navy at Provincetown, Mass., is now being carried on jointly at the Army's planted service Fort Monroe, and at Fort Storey, Va., at an annual savings of $11,000, plus the saving of 18 military personnel. An Army-Air Force agreement provides for the Army to perform accounting operations for both services on their spare parts at ordnance stock control points without duplication of records (except for budget items) at an estimated savings of $208,675. 14. OTHER JOINT USE Of the several score projects completed under this general heading, and the agreements or directives concluded thereunder, it is possible at this time to report savings on the following: Army use of naval drydocks, South Boston, space at annual savings of $52,800; all services joint use of naval properties on Culebra and Vieques Islands for amphibious and shore bombardment training maneuvers at one-time savings of $250,000; Joint Army-Navy use of Navy ship repair facilities at Subic, Philippine Islands, at one-time savings of $3,000,000 (annual savings not estimated to date); relocation (by Interdepartmental Space 89469-49-4 |