A Standard Missile-3 Block IIA is test-fired from Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, Dec. 10, 2024. (Nancy Jones-Bonbrest/Missile Defense Agency)
A proposed $8 billion missile defense system for Guam could have “long-term, significant and major” effects on the island’s housing market and health care system, according to the final Environmental Impact Statement.
The decade-long project — intended to protect Guam from cruise, ballistic and hypersonic missiles potentially launched by China or North Korea — could begin affecting residents as early as this year, when construction crews begin arriving, said the report released July 25.
The Missile Defense Agency and the U.S. Army will wait until at least Aug. 24 before acting on the report’s findings.
Construction of the Enhanced Integrated Air and Missile Defense System — described as a “comprehensive, persistent, 360-degree” shield — is scheduled to begin later this year and continue through 2035. Plans include 36 missile launchers, 23 communication towers and 14 radar systems across the 210-square-mile island.
The report notes that the project would “disproportionately affect the entire island of Guam,” with potentially greater impacts in villages with higher concentrations of minority and low-income residents.
Roughly 40% of the system’s construction workforce is expected to be hired locally. The remaining 60% — about 240 workers — will come from outside Guam. Their arrival is expected to place some strain on the island’s already limited housing supply.
Workers would likely use temporary workforce housing or rent from the local market, according to the report.
By 2026, the military will begin a phased deployment of personnel, starting with 350 service members. By 2031, that number is expected to rise to about 2,300 service members and dependents living on Guam full time — a 1.5% increase over the island’s 2020 population of 153,000 people, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.
While most military personnel will live on Guam’s large military installations, approximately 324 off-base units will still be required — about 17% of the 1,900 rental properties that meet military housing standards.
“Given the limited availability of housing and the unmet community demand for housing units on Guam, impacts on housing are expected to be long term, major, and significant with both direct and indirect impacts,” the report states.
To help mitigate the strain, the Defense Department plans to phase in personnel and build additional on-base housing before dependents begin arriving in 2031.
The health care system on Guam — already designated a Health Professional Shortage Area and Medically Underserved Area by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services — may also be affected by the influx of residents.
Guam’s remote location reduces access to specialized care and makes it difficult to recruit specialists from the U.S. mainland, according to the report.
Although early construction is expected to have only a “short-term, negligible and less-than-significant” effect, the report anticipates long-term pressures as military families settle on the island.
Service members will primarily use on-base care, such as Naval Hospital Guam, but dependents may turn to civilian providers, including Guam Memorial Hospital, the island’s only public hospital.
The report also warns that military hiring could draw medical staff away from civilian clinics already struggling to meet demand.
In response to the projected strain, the Defense Department is “holistically reviewing the life support facility needs for all the DoD projects on Guam,” according to the report.
Support facility locations have not been finalized, but they are expected to be spread across Andersen Air Force Base, Marine Corps Base Camp Blaz and Naval Base Guam, the report said.
