land bases is referred to as "permit" costs which are paid to a foreign nation to obtain the privilege and authority to build, improve and maintain a U.S. military facility on the nations's territory. In 1990, U.S. overseas land base permit costs ran at approximately seven (7) billion dollars The U.S. government paid approximately five (5) billion of this total, and the remainder was contributed by the U.S. taxpayer. To appreciate how rapidly these permit costs are rising, consider that in 1975, permit costs ran at roughly two hundred (200) million dollars, and by 1980, had risen to one (1) billion dollars. As with the increases in the fixed costs of overseas land basing, the majority of the increases in permit costs has also borne by the U.S.not available to advance the super island from the concept stage. With new developments in modular floating platform technology, however, the super island may indeed become a reality in the near future.
Although the utilization of super islands would eliminate the financial and political difficulties presently experienced with the maintenance of foreign land bases, super islands as presently envisioned would present their own set of difficulties with both construction and maintenance. For example, feasible transportation of the large modules forming the island structure from their point of manufacture to a location in international waters off the coast of a foreign land is doubtful, as is the connection of these large modules in an open seaway with today's methodology. Another anticipated limitation to the use of a structure as large