Corrosion Research in DoD

According to Department of Defense Instruction (DoDI) 3110.05, it is DoD policy that all mission essential systems and equipment meet the National Military Strategy and be maintained for optimum mission capable status. LMI has developed capabilities that are beneficial to tabulating these sustainment health metrics such as LogSmart™ Fleet—a predictive analysis tool used to analyze fleet health and performance and provide a tactical view on fleet maintenance—and prototypes, such as the Cost of Readiness Engine (CORE)—a simulation engine that provides a more strategic view of fleet maintenance. For example, LMI used the Maintenance and Availability Data Warehouse (MADW™) to determine how much corrosion costs DoD, revealing a staggering $20 billion annual outlay. LMI has long advocated for reducing these costs through contractual support for timely corrosion policies and research across the DoD. To do this, LMI personnel remain engaged with the corrosion community at large, tracking ongoing research at various national labs to understand the key technical challenges and operational opportunities faced by policymakers and researchers alike.

The corrosion community is a largely cohesive network of engineers and subject matter experts (SMEs) made up of government, industry, associations, and academia members focused on one goal: reducing the corrosion and corrosion-related maintenance costs of DoD assets during design, construction, and service without compromising affordability, readiness, safety, or service life expectancy. In a recent meeting of the Materials & Manufacturing Process Community of Interest, the corrosion community laid out many of the research focus areas that will drive policy and technology development in the near future (outlined in the table). Improving understanding in these focus areas will enable rapid technology development and help generate faster, more intelligent decisions while increasing supply chain resilience and avoiding disruptions to readiness and sustainment support. These focus areas are reflected in the ongoing research and in many DoD committees and requests for proposals.

The corrosion community and DoD are increasingly focusing on data-driven decisions and outcomes as well as on real-time insights and predictive solutions. The corrosion community is working to develop methods for real-time corrosion monitoring using technologies including sensors, imaging, and non-destructive testing. For example, there has been a large drive to add corrosion sensors to military platforms for onboard corrosion monitoring. Recently, both Naval and Air Force platforms (HH-53K and C-130J) have begun using corrosion sensors to enable condition-based maintenance, monitoring the actual condition of an asset to determine when maintenance needs to be completed. By collecting and consolidating datasets into a fleet management system, DoD can better allocate maintenance resources and increase availability and service life objectives for these platforms. The collected data drive sustainment analytics and fleet management by increasing the accuracy of predictive maintenance schedules and decreasing inspection intervals and unnecessary preventative maintenance.

This data can be used with LMI-developed data analysis tools to better manage fleet inventory and supply chain risks. One such tool, the Naval Autonomous Data Collection System (NADACS), uses radio frequency identification technologies to increase asset visibility, which can increase inventory accuracy and enable more timely maintenance schedules. Corrosion monitoring systems, which can be used to better estimate maintenance schedules, could eventually be incorporated into systems like NADACS to better calculate real-time and future inventory needs in relation to maintenance schedules.