Army Regulation 11-42, Army Corrosion Prevention and Control Program, requires that a risk-based approach be used to identify critical components, systems or infrastructure that are susceptible to corrosion. The corrosion degradation of these critical components can lead to the loss of capability or operability, a decrease in safety, an increased need for maintenance, or require special considerations in packaging, storage, and containerization. To aid in this task, a tool is in development to quantify the risk of corrosion occurring on a critical component during deployment. Risk can be  calculated by identifying two factors: frequency and consequence. For this specific risk-based approach, frequency will be determined by calculating the corrosion susceptibility of a critical component by using environmental
severity, operational hazards, design, preventive maintenance, and storage condition variables.
Additionally, the impact of the critical component corroding will serve as the consequence in the calculation of risk by evaluating lifecycle cost and performance. Once frequency and consequence have been quantified the overall risk score can be calculated. If it is determined that the risk is unacceptable, mitigating actions can be taken to reduce risk. The mitigating actions are implemented, and the risk calculation is repeated until acceptable risk is determined. Using the risk-based approach during
acquisition to identify critical components most susceptible to corrosion, implementing design improvements and creating maintenance procedures prior to deployment, has the potential to reduce the lifecycle cost and increase readiness of the component.