Rear Adm. Greg Shear, retiring chief of the Naval Facilities Engineering Command, likely had a few sleepless nights in 2006 when he first took over the U.S. Navy’s construction and facilities management arm, worrying about how it would handle a then-record $9-billion building mission. But at least that would be the peak, he told Navy brass. Three years later, the NAVFAC program has grown nearly 80% to $16 billion and is reaching around the world. “So, I’m not a good prognosticator,” he says.
Changing military missions, new political priorities, global disasters and other contingencies have combined to test NAVFAC’s ability to procure and manage the design, construction and building operations needs of its key clients, the Navy, U.S. Marine Corps and others in the U.S. Defense Dept. While its work scope is still smaller than that of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, NAVFAC has had to expand and retrain a scaled-back military and civilian workforce to handle its contract management at a time of upheaval in the construction industry.