DoD Estimates the Effect of Corrosion on the Cost and Availability of Army Ground Vehicles

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1 Volume 9, Number 1 Spring 2013 Inside DoD DoD Estimates the Effect of Corrosion on the Cost and Availability of Army Ground Vehicles By Eric Herzberg LMI Government Consulting was asked by the DoD Corrosion Prevention and Control Integrated Product Team (CPC IPT) in August 2011 to measure the effect of corrosion on the availability and cost of Army ground vehicle systems. We present these estimates in this report. Using data from fiscal year (FY) 2010, we estimated the annual corrosion-related cost for Army ground vehicles to be $1.6 billion, or 12.6 percent of the total maintenance costs for all Army ground vehicles. We also estimated the effect of corrosion on non-available days for all Army ground vehicle assets. Corrosion is a contributing factor in approximately 662,649 non-available days of ground vehicles per year, or 6.6 percent of the total non-available days. These days equate to an average of 1.7 days of corrosion-related non-availability per year for every reportable ground vehicle or system. The total corrosion-related non-available days (662,649) includes 639,352 not mission capable days that are included in the Department of the Army's current method for reporting non-availability, and 23,297 non-available days that are unreported not available days. Unreported non-available days include unreported non-availability due to depot maintenance, transit time, temporary storage, etc. This review is part of a multi-year plan to measure the effect of corrosion on DoD weapon systems. It is also the first study to analyze the effect of corrosion on Army ground vehicle availability. Table 1 lists previous and future Army studies on the cost of corrosion, while Table 2 lists the studies on the effect of corrosion on availability. (In the tables, NADs refer to nonavailable days.) Table 1. Army Cost-of-Corrosion Studies Page 1

2 Table 2. Army Studies on the Effect of Corrosion Availability As noted earlier, the overall Army ground vehicle corrosion-related costs equate to an average of 12.6 percent of total annual Army ground vehicle maintenance costs. This percentage is the lowest of the DoD weapon systems corrosionrelated cost studies completed thus far. The overall corrosion-related cost for Army ground vehicles as a percentage of maintenance cost has decreased steadily since the initial study in FY2005. We calculated these most recent cost estimates by aggregating the corrosion-related costs of 986 types of Army ground vehicles, major systems, and support equipment. The scope of our study included an inventory of more than 501,000 vehicles and systems for the cost study, and more than 391,000 vehicles and major systems for the availability study. To our knowledge, these data include all types of Army ground vehicles. (Not all ground vehicle systems that incur maintenance costs are reportable from an availability standpoint. This accounts for the difference in ground vehicle totals between the cost and availability studies.) We then segregated corrosion-related costs for Army ground vehicles within three separate schemas: 1) depot or fieldlevel maintenance (DM or FLM) costs, as well as costs outside normal maintenance reporting (ONR); 2) corrective versus preventive maintenance costs; and 3) costs related to structure or parts. We distributed the $1.606 billion corrosionrelated costs within each schema to the extent we were able to classify them according to their respective maintenance records. Table 3 shows both the costs and percentages within each schema for FY2010. Table 3. Nature of Corrosion-Related Costs for Army Ground Vehicles (FY2010) Page 2

3 Corrosion-related DM costs exceed corrosion-related FLM costs, in terms of both total maintenance cost and percentage. Corrosion-related DM costs ($964 million) are more than twice as large as the corrosion-related FLM costs ($423 million). Additionally, the DM corrosion-related cost as a percentage of total Army ground vehicle DM cost is 25.2 percent, significantly exceeding the FLM corrosion-related cost as a percentage of total Army ground vehicle FLM, which is 5.9 percent (see Table 4). Together, DM and FLM account for 86.3 percent ($1.387 billion) of the total combined corrosionrelated cost for Army ground vehicles within schema group 1 ($1.606 billion). Table 4. Comparison of DM and FLM Corrosion Cost ($ in millions) The remaining $219 million for corrosion-related ONR cost for Army ground vehicles in schema 1 is also significant, primarily because of the large number of vehicles and their operators who perform maintenance that is unrecorded in the maintenance recording systems. Costs incurred to prevent corrosion (e.g., painting, inspection, coating, and quality assurance) were higher ($748 million, or 55.2 percent within schema 2) than corrosion-related corrective costs ($606 million, or 44.8 percent within schema 2). Structure-related costs ($704 million, or 56.7 percent within schema 3) were higher than parts-related costs ($537 million, or 43.3 percent within schema 3). We also stratified the corrosion-related costs of Army ground vehicle systems by line item number, total cost, and cost per item. We then ranked the systems by their total and average corrosion-related costs. The order in which Army ground vehicle assets rank in Table 5 suggests a priority for further examination from a corrosion-related cost standpoint. The highlighted line item numbers are among the top 10 for combined total corrosion-related cost ranking and average corrosion-related cost ranking for each of the 6 study years. The two Abrams tank models, M1A1 and M1A2, were the second and third highest contributors to both average and total corrosion-related cost, making them the greatest contributors from a combined ranking standpoint. Table 5. Army Vehicles with the Highest Average per Vehicle and Total Corrosion-Related Cost (FY2010) Page 3

4 We measured the total corrosion-related non-available days (662,649) in a manner consistent with how the Army reports its not-mission capable results with the exception of depot non-mission capable. We found the Army's policy is to typically transfer the property accountability of ground vehicles when they enter DM. As a result, the Army does not typically capture non-mission capable days for these vehicles. We established a separate non-availability calculation for vehicles that incurred DM based on production schedules and maintenance records provided by the Anniston (Alabama) and Red River (Texas) Army depots. Corrosion-related non-available days account for 6.6 percent of the totals reported. We show the highest 10 contributors to corrosion-related non-available days in Table 6. Table 6. Top 10 Contributors to Total Corrosion NADs by Line Item Number (FY2010) Two high-mobility multipurpose wheeled-vehicle (HMMWV) variants show the highest total of corrosion-related nonavailable days (81,156 and 66,464) among all Army ground vehicles. Line item number X59326, a 5-ton truck tractor, shows the highest percentage of corrosion-related non-available days at 10.7 percent. The average corrosion-related nonavailable days per year are low compared to the aviation weapon systems availability studies we have performed. The average corrosion-related non-available days for Army ground vehicles range from 1 day to 4 days. This shows the Army does not typically place a vehicle into non-mission capable status for corrosion-related reasons. Preventive maintenance accounts for nearly two-thirds of the total corrosion-related non-available days, with inspection being by far the major contributor to corrosion-related total non-available days. However, this is most likely an anomaly caused by lack of detail within organic field maintenance records. The lack of detail causes corrosion to be flagged more frequently for preventive reasons than corrective work. Table 7 shows a breakdown of the preventive maintenance nonavailable days. Page 4

5 Table 7. Corrosion-Related Non-Available Days Related to Preventive Maintenance by Activity (FY2010) There is not a strong relationship between corrosion-related costs and corrosion-related non-available days for those Army ground vehicle types with the highest corrosion-related cost. Only two of the top 10 ground vehicle types with the highest corrosion-related cost are also within the top 10 highest contributors to corrosion-related non-available days. These ground vehicles are the M998 HMMWV (Line Item Num-ber T61494) and the Heavy Variant HMMWV (Line Item Number T07679). Although there is a slightly stronger relationship between corrosion-related cost and corrosion-related non-available days by a percentage standpoint, it is not significant. This is most likely due to the overall low level of corrosion-related nonavailable days for all ground vehicles. Table 8. Total Corrosion-Related Cost and NADs by Line Item Number (FY2010) Page 5