Corrosion Office Releases its 2007 DoD Corrosion Report

Report Highlights Pivotal Efforts to Reduce Corrosion on Military Equipment and Infrastructure

By Cynthia Greenwood

The Department of Defense submitted its 2007 DoD Corrosion Report (formerly known as the Report to Congress) in May, focusing on all DoD efforts to reduce corrosion on military equipment and infrastructure. The public can view and download a copy of the report from a link in the box above.

"This report accumulates the vision, status, and success that underlie a united military and industry effort to tackle corrosion—an insidious and costly threat to the future of the U.S. industrial military complex," said Daniel J. Dunmire, leader of the Corrosion Policy and Oversight Office. By law, the DoD will distribute the report to members of Congress in conjunction with a legally mandated Government Accountability Office (GAO) audit.

The DoD Corrosion Report details various goals that DoD has accomplished between 2005 and 2007 to fulfill its mission. Essentially that mission consists of a widespread effort by the military and industry to reduce the effects of corrosion on public safety and the safety and readiness of the American warfighter, as well as lowering the financial burden of corrosion on the American taxpayer.

The report opens with a written comment from several Pentagon officials who summed up the main goal of the DoD Corrosion Office early on: "It is simply good sense and good management to prevent corrosion through better design and selection of materials, and to reduce treatment costs by detecting corrosion earlier and more precisely. Fighting corrosion is just one of the things that we need to constantly do so that we are always ready to perform the fundamental mission of the Department, which is to maintain our national security."

In its opening section the report spells out the origins of the DoD effort to make corrosion prevention a widespread initiative involving all military services. It also includes the DoD strategy for tackling this problem. The report takes credit for creating a new DoD-wide culture that is sensitive to corrosion's long-term effects and "sets boundaries on the cost of corrosion." This culture also creates sound corrosion prevention policy and metrics to measure how effective its policies and programs are.

Most important, "this culture permeates the military, industrial, and academic sectors, creating new approaches for characterizing, preventing, and treating corrosion and mitigating its effects," the report states.

Report Highlights

According to the report, the DoD corrosion community's major accomplishments include:

• Funding and initiating 82 corrosion mitigation projects between 2005 and 2007
• Creating and disseminating a Department of Defense instruction to all military services, titled Prevention and Mitigation of Corrosion on DoD's Military Equipment and Infrastructure
• Completing a landmark cost-of-corrosion study that details corrosion prevention costs associated with Army ground vehicles and Navy ships and submarines
• Developing a corrosion prevention course at the Defense Acquisition University suited to DoD personnel who are involved in the acquisition of weapon systems
• Providing training on policies and procedures for Corrosion Prevention and Advisory Team (CPAT) members who are involved in projects involving DoD equipment and infrastructure

The 2007 report provides the status of key corrosion activities, including:

• The results of 28 corrosion mitigation projects funded in fiscal year 2005;
• The progress of 54 corrosion mitigation projects funded in fiscal years 2006 and 2007;
• The results of the first phase of the DoD cost-of-corrosion effort;
• The launch of a user-friendly Web tool designed to guide suppliers as they apply to have their products qualified by the DoD;
• The status of the DoD Instruction to all Services on preventing and mitigating corrosion on military equipment and infrastructure;
• Efforts to develop a Corrosion Prevention and Control Overview course for the DoD's acquisition workforce;
• Plans for a corrosion study by the National Materials Advisory Board of The National Academies;
• Highlights of the efforts and successes of seven committees, known as working integrated product teams (WIPTs), who support the widespread effort to reduce corrosion in the military. The names of the committees include Communication and Outreach; Facilities/Infrastructure; Metrics, Impact, and Sustainment; Policy Requirements; Science and Technology; Specifications/Standards and Product Qualification; and Training and Certification.

Click here to view a complete table of contents for the 2007 DoD Corrosion Report. Click here to view or download a copy of the 2007 DoD Corrosion Report. (3.1 MB PDF)

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