DOD acquires, operates, and maintains a vast array of physical assets, ranging from aircraft, ships, and land vehicles to buildings, ports, and other facilities. Corrosion is an extensive problem that affects these assets and has an impact on military funding requirements, readiness, and safety. It is estimated that the direct costs to DOD of corrosion on military equipment and infrastructure is between $10 billion and $20 billion annually. In our prior work, we reported in July 2003 that, although the full impact of corrosion could not be quantified because of the limited amount of reliable data that DOD and the military services had available, corrosion has a substantial impact in terms of cost, readiness, and safety on military equipment and facilities. Moreover, we found that DOD and the military services did not have an effective management approach to mitigate and prevent corrosion. As a result, we recommended, and DOD concurred, that it should develop a departmentwide strategic plan with clearly defined goals, measurable outcome-oriented objectives, and performance measures. In recognizing the extent of DOD’s corrosion problem, Congress enacted legislation as part of the Bob Stump National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2003 that directed the Secretary of Defense to designate an officer or organization to be responsible for the prevention and mitigation of corrosion of military equipment and infrastructure. The legislation also required the Secretary to develop a long-term strategy to reduce corrosion and the effects of corrosion on military equipment and infrastructure, and submit the report to Congress no later than 12 months after the date of the enactment of the Act. The mandate required that the strategy include, among other things, policy guidance, performance measures and milestones, and an assessment of the necessary personnel and funding to accomplish the long-term strategy. The mandate also required that DOD include an assessment of these elements for four specific initiatives. These initiatives are: (1) expansion of the emphasis on corrosion prevention and mitigation within DOD to include coverage of infrastructure; (2) application uniformly throughout DOD of requirements and criteria for the testing and certification of new corrosion-prevention technologies for equipment and infrastructure with similar characteristics, similar missions, or similar operating environments; (3) implementation of programs, including supporting databases, to ensure that a focused and coordinated approach is taken throughout DOD to collect, review, validate, and distribute information on proven methods and products that are relevant to the prevention of corrosion of military equipment and infrastructure; and (4) establishment of a coordinated research and development program for the prevention and mitigation of corrosion for new and existing military equipment and infrastructure that includes a plan to transition new corrosion prevention technologies into operational systems. To prepare a strategy, DOD established a corrosion policy and oversight task force. The task force is located in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisitions, Technology, and Logistics and reports to the Principal Deputy Under Secretary for Acquisitions, Technology, and Logistics. The task force consists of seven working groups responsible for addressing seven corrosion focus areas: (1) policy and requirements; (2) impact, metrics, and sustainment; (3) science and technology, (4) communication and outreach; (5) training and doctrine; (6) facilities; and (7) specifications or standards and product qualification. According to DOD officials, these seven areas were identified to address the congressional concerns that led to the mandate and the issues discussed in our 2003 report. These officials said that because the key elements of the mandate (funding and personnel, performance measures and milestones, and policy guidance) are comprehensive, they each apply one way or another to the seven focus areas in the strategy. While the long-term corrosion strategy generally addresses the mandate’s requirements, several shortcomings are likely to hamper the successful implementation of DOD’s long-term corrosion strategy. The strategy (1) does not identify the level of funding and personnel resources needed to tackle corrosion problems; (2) does not provide outcome-oriented performance measures and a baseline study to measure progress; and (3) strengthens existing policy guidance, but some improvements can be made. In addition, we recommended in our July 2003 corrosion report, and DOD concurred with our recommendation, that a long-term strategy should include elements compatible with the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993. Among these elements were the level of resources needed to accomplish the strategy’s goals and objectives and performance measures, such as the expected return on investment and realized net savings of prevention projects that show progress toward achieving the strategy’s objectives. While DOD’s corrosion strategy generally addresses the issue of funding, it does not include any estimates of the specific dollar amounts that are needed for its near- or long-term implementation. According to the strategy, the newly formed Corrosion Policy and Oversight task force will develop inputs to the Future Years Defense Program based on corrosion requirements and projects. DOD corrosion officials told us, however, that funding estimates were not included in the strategy because DOD and the military services are still in the process of determining the requirements. The officials said they expect to have firm estimates by December 2004. In a separate study during the preparation of the strategy, however, DOD’s corrosion task force developed a preliminary schedule of funding requirements for corrosion reduction efforts. These estimates projected that DOD and the military services would need a total of about $1.9 billion in departmentwide corrosion prevention and mitigation resources for fiscal years 2004 through 2009. DOD corrosion officials said that the task force’s figures represent an initial attempt to estimate DOD’s and the military service’s funding needs. Table 1 shows the task force’s estimated funding requirements for corrosion prevention and mitigation efforts for both military equipment and infrastructure for the period from fiscal year 2004 through fiscal year 2009. The task force’s estimates indicated that the services would need about $74.4 million in fiscal year 2004 for corrosion prevention and mitigation projects, but this funding has not been allocated or obligated. The task force identified 93 projects that had high potential returns on investment and were ready to be undertaken immediately. These projects included, for example, the installation of sensors to monitor fuel tanks and pipes for corrosion and the use of corrosion-inhibiting lubricants for avionics equipment on military aircraft. Corrosion officials told us that the $74.4 million was not included in DOD’s fiscal year 2004 budget request because the task force developed the estimate too late to be incorporated in the budget request. Corrosion officials said they hoped to obtain funding that would become available during fiscal year 2004, but, as of April 2004, DOD and the services had not allocated or obligated these funds. The task force also estimated that the services would need about $312 million for equipment and infrastructure corrosion projects in fiscal year 2005. However, DOD's Comptroller officials told us that the services included only $27 million, less than 10 percent of the projected amount for departmentwide corrosion prevention and mitigation projects in their fiscal year 2005 budget request. To fund these projects, DOD Comptroller officials approved a budget change of $27 million from a special project designed to counter threats to the Civil Reserve Fleet and other aircraft to the services’ operation and maintenance accounts ($9 million each for Army and Air Force, $7 million for the Navy, and $2 million for the Marine Corps). DOD corrosion officials told us that they are using these service accounts because DOD does not have an account that is dedicated to departmentwide corrosion reduction. These officials also said that, after the funds are appropriated, they plan to issue a letter of instruction to the services requiring them to obtain approval from DOD’s corrosion office for the use of these funds. Of the $27 million, DOD corrosion officials said they expect to use $24 million for corrosion projects (e.g., for rinse facilities for the services’ helicopters and other aircraft and temporary shelters for military equipment and vehicles), $2.5 million to begin a corrosion impact baseline study; and $500,000 for the corrosion task force’s operating expenses. DOD corrosion officials told us that, while the $27 million falls far short of the amount needed to fully implement the strategy, it represents the first time that DOD expects to use funds for corrosion reduction on a departmentwide basis, and it demonstrates DOD’s commitment to augment the funding resources that have previously been under the purview of the military services. DOD Comptroller officials told us that, in future fiscal years, corrosion reduction efforts would likely continue to be funded on a year-to-year basis by program offsets, such as those used for 2005. They said they eventually expect that departmentwide funding will no longer be needed as the military services assume a greater role in funding their own corrosion reduction projects. Comptroller officials said that the services have the knowledge and expertise to manage their own corrosion control projects and, therefore, are in a much better position to identify and allocate funding for these efforts. However, DOD corrosion officials said that the services are not in a position of knowing which corrosion projects have the best potential to provide departmentwide benefits and, furthermore, that these projects are not well coordinated within and among the military services. DOD’s corrosion officials said that the corrosion reduction strategy may continue to be underfunded because of the lack of an effective long term funding mechanism that would better ensure that corrosion reduction projects have sustained funding over a period of years. At the present time, the corrosion prevention program is being supported piecemeal through budget change proposals or offsets. Corrosion officials told us that with a long-term funding mechanism dedicated to departmentwide corrosion prevention and mitigation, the program might be able to secure a commitment for funding these projects for future years. Such a mechanism could also fund projects that crosscut the services and that have the greatest potential for cost savings. Corrosion officials said that they prefer to have a long-term funding mechanism, such as a program element, but the DOD Comptroller does not think that this is necessary at this time.