Defense News runs a Special Report on the logistics cost around the US Pacific shift: “A year and a half after the Obama administration released its latest National Security Strategy calling for a “rebalancing” of US strategic focus from the Middle East to the Pacific, the broad outlines of what that shift may look like are coming into view.”

“What the military is discovering is that the shifting of troops and materiel across the globe, and then finding them homes, shelter and storage space, is complex and won’t come cheap.”

“To take one example for which some preliminary figures are available, it’s estimated that moving approximately 9,000 Marines from Okinawa and spreading them out to several other locations in the region, as plans call for, would cost about $12 billion, according to Defense Department figures.”

“The plan is to shift roughly 4,800 Marines to Guam, 2,700 to Hawaii and 2,500 to Australia, with others coming back to the US mainland.”

“But a Government Accountability Office report published June 11 warns that the Pentagon ‘has not developed an integrated master plan for its current realignment plan, and it has not developed a strategy to support the development and oversight of the Japanese construction projects associated with other realignment initiatives.’”