The On Base team spoke with Matrix’s Defense Communities Team Lead Casey Bartholomew as a part of ADC’s 50th anniversary. Bartholomew shared how he saw the future of defense communities in the next 10 years and beyond. 

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.   

ADC: What is the one thing driving the most change in the communities and installations you support right now? 

Bartholomew: Installations are not operating independently on islands. So shared threats within surrounding communities are the main drivers for change. It’s hard to single out one thing as communities face different challenges when it comes to things like infrastructure vulnerabilities, growing energy demands, compatible land use, resource scarcity, housing challenges, or emerging threats like cyber and drone attacks.  

Community and installation interdependence in a homeland that is no longer a sanctuary is probably the one thing driving the need for increased cooperation across our nation. 

ADC: What is the one thing you see looking different 10 years from now?   

Bartholomew: Installation-community interdependence and interoperability will continue to increase, and we’ve seen progress towards that over the last 50 years. The installations that thrive will be those who support communities and become active co-steers of the mission, aligned on land use, infrastructure, emergency management and economic strategies.  

In the context of emerging threats, we expect common operating procedures and digital decision tools to be foundational rather than supplemental with installations and community sharing real time, geospatial and operational data in ways that simply don’t exist today. 

ADC: What is the one thing you are doing today to help get us there?   

Batholomew: Matrix has significant experience in the defense community space, having completed more than 150 compatible use, installation readiness, economic impact and housing studies around the nation, so we will continue to build on that. We also have a deep understanding of OLDCC programs and are partnered with several communities on installation readiness efforts today. 

Matrix maintains a cadre of defense community experts dedicated to helping communities and installations cooperate, collaborate and make mutually beneficial decisions from a shared foundation of facts.