Rust Costs The Pentagon $20 Billion A Year

Rust Never Sleeps, But It’s Very Expensive -- DoD Buzz

We’re living in a golden age for rust in the military — or a dark age, depending on the way you look at it. Commanders at all levels are more aware than they’ve ever been about the hazards and costs of corrosion, which cost DoD $22.5 billion just in 2009, according to one study. The brass is convening rust conferences, pursuing new materials and technology to help defeat it, and, in the case of the Navy, completely changing its thinking about what it means for ships. Back in the day, the Navy got sick of its ships and just threw them away, on the theory that, hey, we’ll just buy new ones! But over the past few years, the service has come to realize that it has to make all of its ships last as long as they can, which means it’s focusing on rust, hulls, tanks, voids and other unglamorous parts of it ships, to keep them around for their full service lives.

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My Comment: So .... rust costs approximately $20 billion a year. Hmmmm .... air-conditioning also costs approximately $20 billion a year. Wow .... $40 billion just on rust and air conditioning.