Small temporary bases routinely grow into large permanent ones with rising costs.

Evidence

By design or otherwise, small bases can quickly grow into behemoths. As we have seen, the Navy presented Diego Garcia to Congress as an “austere communications facility,” but it has grown into a multibillion-dollar base. Similarly, the 2002 Philippines deployment has grown into multiple lily pads, pier and airfield construction, and a return to Clark and Subic Bay. By 2006, Robert D. Kaplan found that at least one lily pad had transformed from a “grim, spartan camp … with an air of impermanence” into one “with proper walkways and creature comforts that befit a more hardened, permanent arrangement.” — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 1017

Categorization

• XREF: Ties back to Diego Garcia’s origins as an ‘austere communications facility’ discussed in earlier chapters.