Why DoD Must Protect its Assets

The Department of Defense acquires, operates, and maintains a vast array of physical assets, ranging from aircraft, ground vehicles, ships, and
other materiel to buildings, airfields, ports, and other infrastructure.  Furthermore, in order to perform its mission, DoD must train and fight in all
environments, including some of the most corrosively aggressive on Earth.  Consequently, DoD assets are subject to significant degradation due
to corrosion, with specific effects in the following areas:

• Safety—A number of weapon system mishaps have been attributed to the effects of corrosion. For example, corroded electrical contacts
  on F-16s caused “uncommanded” fuel valve closures (with subsequent loss of aircraft), and corrosion-related cracking of F/A-18 landing
  gears resulted in failures during carrier operations.
• Readiness—Weapon systems are routinely out of commission due to corrosion deficiencies.  For example, corrosion has been identified as
  the reason for more than 50 percent of the maintenance needed on KC-135 aircraft.
• Financial—The cost of corrosion to the DoD alone is estimated to be between $10 billion and $20 billion annually.  

For these reasons, DoD has a long history of corrosion prevention and control. The Department has been a leader in many areas of research
(ranging from understanding the fundamentals of corrosion to applying advanced materials, coatings, inhibitors, and cathodic protection for
corrosion control).