Department of War Energy, Installations, and Environment Innovation Programs

The Department of War’s (DoW) Energy, Installations, and Environment Innovation Programs support the military mission by funding technical and implementation projects that inform effective and efficient military land management on or near DoW installations and ranges to preserve and enhance test, training, and operational capabilities. The projects funded through these programs enable mission-driven use of DoW working lands, protect strategic defense priorities, develop new technologies to facilitate the DoW mission, avoid regulatory restrictions of military lands, and improve military installation resilience. DoW’s Innovation Programs are overseen by three program offices, (1) the Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program (SERDP) and the Environmental Security Technology Certification Program (ESTCP), (2) the Legacy Resource Management Program (Legacy Program), and (3) the Readiness and Environmental Protection Integration (REPI) Program. All three of these programs fund projects in coordination with the Military Services, private organizations, and Federal, state, and local entities. SERDP/ESTCP ESTCP was established in 1995 for the purpose of demonstrating and validating mature environmental management and natural hazard tools and technologies within the military environment. Its sister program, SERDP was established by Congress in 1990 under 10 U.S. Code (U.S.C.) Section 2901 - 2904 to develop needed tools and technology to address the most pressing environmental management challenges on and adjacent to military lands. Both SERDP and ESTCP seek to accelerate the transfer of technology to installation managers at a pace that meets the rapidly changing needs of military conflict, particularly in key DoW geographies with a high concentration of military installations, ranges, or infrastructure. Legacy Program The Legacy Program was established by the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1991 10 USC 2694. Since then, the Legacy Program has provided over $405 million in funding for over 3,400 projects, supporting over 300 military installations worldwide. Working in collaboration with the Military Services, as well as other Federal and state agencies, private organizations and academia, the Legacy Program identifies the Department’s most pressing resource management needs. Knowledge of these partners’ needs allows the Legacy Program to focus investments on high priority efforts that support military mission readiness, more efficiently meet regulatory requirements, and improve the effectiveness of DoW resource management programs. REPI Program Congress established the REPI Program under 10 U.S.C. § 2684a in 2002 under the Fiscal Year (FY) 2003 National Defense Authorization Act. The REPI Program provides the Military Services with tools to protect irreplaceable training areas and mission-critical assets. Through cost-sharing and cost-saving agreements between the Military Services, other Federal agencies, state and local governments, and private organizations, the REPI Program preserves military missions by avoiding land-use conflicts near military installations, preventing environmental regulatory restrictions that limit military activities, and increasing military installation resilience. The REPI Program funds projects under 10 U.S.C. § 2684a, 16 U.S.C. § 670c-1, commonly referred to as the Sikes Act, and 10 U.S.C. § 2679, or Intergovernmental Support Agreements, that address land-use changes and other incompatible development that disrupt or restrict warfighter access to DoW training lands, waters, and critical airspace. By helping DoW avoid the more costly alternatives of workarounds, segmentation, relocations, or replacing restricted training and testing capabilities, the REPI Program directly supports the warfighter and safeguards operational readiness. From FY 2003 through FY 2024, DoW invested more than $1.5 billion in REPI projects, leveraged by nearly $1.4 billion in non-DoW partner contributions. These contributions helped protect over 1.3 million acres at 140 locations across 40 states and territories, preserving the operational capabilities and resilience needed to deter and defeat adversaries.