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GAO-14-337R 1 (2014-03-27)

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GAO U.S. GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE
441 G St. N.W.
Washington, DC 20548

March 27, 2014

Congressional Committees

Defense Infrastructure: DOD's 2013 Facilities Corrosion Study Addressed Reporting
Elements

In 2013, the Department of Defense (DOD) reported spending an estimated $20.8 billion
annually to prevent and mitigate corrosion of its assets, including military equipment, weapons,
and facilities and other infrastructure.1 While the vast majority of these costs are related to
corrosion issues on military equipment and weapons, the cost of corrosion at DOD facilities and
other infrastructure2 was estimated to be about $1.9 billion annually.3 Corrosion is defined in
Section 2228 of Title 10 of the United States Code as the deterioration of a material or its
properties due to a reaction of that material with its chemical environment. DOD manages more
than 555,000 facilities-including barracks, commissaries, data centers, office buildings,
laboratories, maintenance depots, storage tanks, and piers-and linear structures, such as
pipelines, roads, and runways, at more than 5,000 sites that cover more than 28 million acres.

In its report accompanying HR 1540, a bill for the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal
Year 2012,4 the House Armed Services Committee directed DOD's Director of the Office of
Corrosion Policy and Oversight (hereafter referred to as the Corrosion Office) to conduct an
evaluation of corrosion matters related to the department's facilities and infrastructure,
specifying that the study should (1) identify the key cost drivers5 for corrosion associated with
facilities and infrastructure and recommend strategies for reducing their effect; (2) review a
sampling of facilities that are representative of facility type, military department, and facility age;
(3) include an assessment of at least one planned facility construction program; and (4) include
information obtained from site visits and the examination of program documentation, including
maintenance and facility engineering processes.

In the same report, the House Armed Services Committee directed that we provide the
congressional defense committees an assessment of DOD's facilities and infrastructure



1This cost estimate, which was produced by a DOD contractor and is based on data from fiscal years 2006 through
2010, is the latest estimate available on DOD corrosion costs.
2Infrastructure is defined in Section 2228 of Title 10 of the United States Code as all buildings, structures, airfields,
port facilities, surface and subterranean utility systems, heating and cooling systems, fuel tanks, pavements, and
bridges.
3The estimate of the annual cost of corrosion for DOD facilities and other infrastructure was produced by a DOD
contractor and is based on data from fiscal years 2007 and 2008. This is the latest estimate available on DOD
corrosion costs for facilities and other infrastructure.
4H.R. Rep. No. 112-78.

5For the purposes of its study, DOD defines cost drivers as costs that have already been spent for corrosion-related
maintenance, including labor, material, and preventive and corrective actions.


GAO-14-337R Defense Infrastructure

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