Defense Management: Additional Measures to Reduce Corrosion of Prepositioned Military Assets Could Achieve Cost Savings
GAO-06-709
Published: Jun 14, 2006. Publicly Released: Jun 14, 2006.
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Highlights
The military services store prepositioned stocks of equipment and material on ships and land in locations around the world to enable the rapid fielding of combat-ready forces. GAO's prior work has shown that the readiness and safety of military equipment can be severely degraded by corrosion and that the Department of Defense (DOD) spends billions of dollars annually to address corrosion. GAO was asked to review the impact of corrosion on prepositioned assets. GAO's specific objectives were to assess (1) the measures taken by the Army and the Marine Corps to reduce the impact of corrosion on prepositioned assets and (2) the availability of corrosion-related data to the Army and the Marine Corps to support corrosion prevention and mitigation efforts for prepositioned assets.
Recommendations
Recommendations for Executive Action
| Agency Affected | Recommendation | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Department of Defense | To reduce the impact of corrosion on prepositioned assets and support additional corrosion prevention and mitigation efforts, the Secretary of Defense should direct the Secretary of the Army to examine the feasibility of using temporary shelters, including humidity-controlled facilities, to store land-based prepositioned assets currently stored outdoors, and if such use is determined to be feasible, to take appropriate actions to implement the use of shelters to the maximum extent possible. |
Closed – Implemented
According to the Army Corrosion Prevention Office, the Army has procured additional temporary shelters to house prepositioned assets that were previously stored outdoors. According to Army corrosion officials, the shelters were procured to house prepositioned equipment located in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait and Charleston, South Carolina. Furthermore, the Army was evaluating the expanded use humidity-controlled facilities for its propositioned assets. Army corrosion officials told us that financial and operations analyses were done to support the procurement of temporary shelters at these locations. According to the DOD corrosion office, these actions were taken to address findings and recommendations in the GAO report.
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| Department of Defense | To reduce the impact of corrosion on prepositioned assets and support additional corrosion prevention and mitigation efforts, the Secretary of Defense should direct the Secretary of the Army to collect corrosion-related data, as required in existing Army regulations, and use these data to support additional corrosion prevention and mitigation efforts. |
Closed – Implemented
According to DOD and Army corrosion officials, the Army has instructed and trained maintenance personnel to collect and track corrosion-related data of weapons systems, including prepositioned equipment. Specifically, Army Aviation and Missile Command personnel are instructed to enter a failure code 170 (when corrosion is the root-cause for failure or required maintenance),when appropriate, into the Army Maintenance Management System. Army corrosion officials said that sustained use of the code at this and other Army commands will result in having a comprehensive corrosion-related data associated with weapons systems. These officials also told us that this additional data will be used to help support the funding of increased corrosion prevention and control projects. This action meets the intent of our recommendation.
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| Department of Defense | To reduce the impact of corrosion on prepositioned assets and support additional corrosion prevention and mitigation efforts, the Secretary of Defense should direct the Commandant of the Marine Corps to require the collection of corrosion-related data and use these data to support additional corrosion prevention and mitigation efforts. |
Closed – Implemented
According to DOD and Marine Corps corrosion officials, the Marine Corps Corrosion Prevention and Control (CPAC) Program established procedures for obtaining and assessing corrosion-related data on equipment. Specifically, CPAC developed and is using a Corrosion Assessment Checklist that includes obtaining corrosion data on Marine Corps equipment, including prepositioned assets. According to DOD and Army corrosion officials, the Army has instructed and trained maintenance personnel to collect and track corrosion-related data of weapons systems, including prepositioned equipment. CPAC officials told us that the sustained use of the checklist will eventually lead to having a comprehensive data base that includes corrosion-related data. These officials also told us that this additional data will be used to help support the funding of increased corrosion prevention and control projects. These actions meet the intent of our recommendation.
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| Department of Defense | The Secretary of Defense should direct the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics to specify the department's planned actions, milestones, and resources for completing an Army feasibility study on the use of temporary shelters to store land-based prepositioned assets and for collecting and using Army and Marine Corps corrosion-related data to support additional corrosion prevention and mitigation efforts. |
Closed – Implemented
The Army and Marine Corps have taken actions that satisfy the intent of GAO's recommendations; therefore, the Under Secretary of Defense no longer needs to develop a plan to ensure these recommendations are implemented.
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Topics
Combat readinessComparative analysisCorrosionData collectionDefense capabilitiesEquipment maintenanceEquipment managementMaintenance costsMilitary inventoriesU.S. Army