Rust never sleeps, and neither does the Pentagon. The Department of Defense's Armed with Science blog reminds us of this with a fresh post that offers sobering new statistics on the state of metallic decay in the United States.

"When reflecting on things that impact the national economy, most of us tend to think of outsourcing, the stock market, tax policy, etc." But, Armed With Science asks: "Did you think of corrosion? You should."

True that. More than three percent of the gross national product is spent de-corrosifying our infrastructure each year, the post notes. Since the DoD worries that that percentage won't impress you, it hastens to add that this costs every person in the country around $1,000 on an annual basis. We're talking about $300 billion here.

Multiple thrusts

The government defines corrosion as "the deterioration of a material or its properties due to a reaction of that material with its chemical environment." The meeting of metals with oxygen in the presence of water or moist air, creating rust, is the most commonly known form of corrosion. But there are plenty of others.

The Pentagon itself spends something in the neighborhood of $23 billion per annum to combat the problem. "Weapon systems are routinely out of commission due to corrosion deficiencies," the DoD observes. "For example, corrosion has been identified as the reason for more than 50 percent of the maintenance needed on KC-135 aircraft."

So—get this—the Defense Department has an entire agency that does nothing but try to figure out ways to fight corrosive gunk.

The DoD Corrosion Office "directs multiple thrusts in corrosion research and development, training, outreach, and policy, using existing organizations and talent within government, industry, and academia to implement its mission." And if you go over to that site, you can find out about the state of this crusade in every branch of our Armed Forces in excruciating detail.

For example, here's a study on the state of corrosion for the United States Air Force in Europe, a 30-year case history of polyurethane thick film coatings in civil engineering applications, a report on wash intervals of Navy P3 sensors, a review of the application of aluminum coatings for the corrosion protection of magnesium by cold spray, and last but not least, an analysis of a "Zeolite coating system for corrosion control to eliminate hexavalent chromium from DoD applications."

Plus, the site has a generous supply of really gross infrastructure corrosion pictures (don't look at these if you are a nervous homeowner).

On a more fun note, we definitely recommend checking out the DoD's assortment of corrosion prevention training online games. These include Inspect and Protect: A Cathodic Protection Game and Protocol 424: an e-Learning Corrosion Game

And the gung-ho, corrosion must die-die-die inspirational video podcast can be found here. "By understanding corrosion and what can be done about it, YOU can be part of the solution," declares Dan Dunmire of the Office of the Secretary of Defense, pointing at his audience.

"I like that a lot!" Dunmire adds.

Listing image by Department of Defense