Depending on the equipment's level of sophistication, the company also might have to rip out the instrument panels if the military hasn't done so already. Then, while military personnel observe, Midwest's workers light up cutting torches and slice the weapon into chunks small enough for shipping. Demilitarization codes stipulate how key components such as the tank's barrel must be destroyed. Sometimes we need to cut it up even more so that we can use it or ship the scrap straight from the base to one of our customers. That helps avoid additional shipping, handling, processing, and shredding costs.
Some companies have contracts only with the military to dismantle weapons or disarm ammunition.
JPJ Munitions in Scottsdale, Ariz., specializes in demilitarizing a broad range of ordnance. The Defense Dept. in the last three years has begun a program of cleaning up practice ranges because of environmental concerns about the materials left behind, Pabian says. His company processes this ordnance. The Sierra Army Depot, which is in a remote desert region of northern California, demilitarizes bombs, landmines, and other ordnance by hauling it to one of 14 isolated pits on the property and igniting it. In 1997, the depot demilitarized 28,000 tons of munitions.