Defense Science Board Issues New UXO Report

[Aimee Houghton <aimeeh@cpeo.org>]

The Defense Science Board UXO Task Force has released a new report on 
unexploded ordnance, munitions, and the subsequent constituents.  At the 
SERDP/ESTCP meeting in early December Task Force co-chair, William Delaney, 
provided participants with an overview of the forthcoming recommendations.

Briefly, the report concurs with the findings of the DSB report of 1998 and 
expands on those with recommendations that will help the Defense Department 
get a better handle on the UXO problem in a shorter time period.

The five major recommendations of the report are:

1.  National area assessment of the identified 10 million acres that are 
suspected of muntions contamination.

The crux of this recommendation is to undertake a comprehensive 5-year 
evaluation of all sites known or suspected of having munitions 
contamination and determine which areas are contaminated.  The contaminated 
land would then be prioritized for cleanup and the remaining land put back 
into productive use.  The anticipated cost would be $1 billion or $200 
million a year at $125 per acre.

During the assessment phase current UXO cleanup projects would remain 
ongoing and funded at a rate of $150 million per year.  For a full cost 
comparison please see the table following this text.

2.  Increase the R&D effort on UXO instrument technology, green munitions, 
and constituents phenomenology to a level $80 million per year.

Currently, these activities are funded at $40 million per year.  The task 
force believes that these are all what they term, "high pay-off" 
technologies that have the potential to save tens of billions of dollars 
over the mid and long term.

For UXO cleanup technology the task force states that the false alarm ratio 
should be 10:1 in the next five years.  If cost savings is the goal, states 
the report, then this has to be a first tier priority for the Department.

The task force sees that the further development of green munitions is 
essential thus stopping contamination before it is even initiated.

Finally, the task force believes that munitions constituent contamination 
will be a "show-stopper" for the Defense Department unless they get out in 
front of the problem and show real initiative in solving this dilemma.

3.  Institute a management and contractual structure that can capitalize 
new technology instruments.

This recommendation appears to call for larger firms to be involved in the 
cleanup of UXO thus bringing with them the capital and incentive to develop 
more effective and creative technological approaches to cleanup.  Though 
the UXO problem has been projected to cost in the billions of dollars, 
historically, there has not been much money in the UXO cleanup market.  The 
incentive for large firms to enter into this market and subsequently 
bringing their technological resources to bear has been almost non-existent.

4.  Conducting an assessment of live-fire practices on ranges with the goal 
of reducing the UXO and related munitions constituents problems.

This recommendation may, perhaps, be the most controversial of the 
five.  The task force acknowledges the utility of live-fire training but 
ultimately states that it "remains unconvinced" that live-fire training 
should continue in its current form.  The military expends some two million 
round of explosives per year in training--far exceeding what it actually 
cleans up.  This fact was presented at the SERDP/ESTCP briefing and were 
told that even training operators were surprised when presented with this 
information.  The report states that this is directly related to the 
current UXO problem and growing constituent problem.

5.  Establish a full life-cycle cost protocol for munitions that includes 
cleanup and demilitarization.

This is relatively self-explanatory.  The report states that the knowledge 
gap between the weapons procurers and users and the cleanup personnel is 
vast and that all parties must understand the costs.  At the SERDP/ESTCP 
briefing it was put a little more succinctly, but to paraphrase, task force 
co-chair William Delaney stated that the task force wanted every operator 
to understand how expensive a munitions was to make, the cost of firing it, 
and the eventual cost of cleanup/demilitarization.

Funding Implications of DSB UXO Task Force Recommendations

Activity                        Current                 Recommended 
    Recommended
                                Funding         Funding 
Funding
                                                Next Five 
Years         Out Years

Areas Assessment                $25M/yr $200M/yr                --

UXO 
Cleanup                     $125M/yr        $150M/yr                $350M/yr

Instrumentation
R&D                             $20M/yr $40M/yr         --

Munitions Improvements
Green & Constituents            $20M/yr $40M/yr         $40M/yr

Total                           $200M/yr        $450M/yr 
$400M/yr


The recommendations of this report can only be seen in a positive 
light.  Hopefully, Congress will get briefed on the report and gain a 
better understanding of the enormity of the UXO and subsequent constituent 
problem.  Many of the recommendations provide a good foundation for actual 
legislation and increased appropriations.

We, at CPEO, have long discussed increased funding, the use of green 
munitions, innovative technologies, and alternatives to live-fire training 
as ways to address the UXO problem.  The Defense Department would be wise 
to fully implement the recommendations of this report.

The full report can be viewed at or downloaded from the CPEO website at:

http://www.cpeo.org/pubs/UXO_Final_12_8.pdf

Aimee





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Aimee R. Houghton
Associate Director, CPEO
1101 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 1000
Washington, DC  20036
tel: 202-452-8039; fax: 202-452-8095
Email: aimeeh@cpeo.org
www.cpeo.org
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