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What Should QA Look For During a Corrosion Control Inspection?

QA verifies that corrosion control covers cleaning, early visual detection, proper treatment, and documentation. Inspectors check appearance, cleanliness, and prevention practices against the applicable technical order, and confirm corrosion-related findings are reported and tracked through the unit program.

Readers asked this on CheckMyRegs and CheckMyAFI 20 times — this page answers it from the official catalogs and the publications’ own text.

The controlling publication in each branch

BranchControlling publicationDatedSource
ArmyAR 11-42 Current
Corrosion surveys and failure reporting requirements
2026-05-04Official link
ArmyDA PAM 11-42 Current
Unit corrosion program procedures and SOP template
2026-05-01Official link
Marine CorpsMCO 4790.18C Current
Preventive and corrective corrosion control for ground equipment
2014-08-21Official link
Air ForceDAFI 21-101 Current
QA inspection standards and corrosion control tasks
2023-12-20Official link
Air ForceAFGSCI 21-105 Current
ICBM corrosion prevention, detection, and treatment
2026-04-22Official link
NavyOPNAVINST 4790.2K Current
Naval aviation maintenance corrosion control program
2025-04-25Official link
Publication numbers, dates, and statuses resolve live against each branch’s official catalog every time this page loads — when a service revises its reg, this page follows. Quotes below are extracted verbatim from the official PDFs. Verify the controlling copy before citing it.

What the regulation actually says

Cleanliness and appearance

Confirm inspection appearance, cleanliness, ground safety, and corrosion prevention practices meet the governing technical order.

“2.4.3.8.5. Ensure standard maintenance practices regarding inspection appearance, cleanliness, ground safety, and prevention of corrosion are met. Corrosion control procedures are outlined in TO 1-1-691.”

Visual detection of corrosion

Capture and document exhibited or nonexhibited corrosion through visual inspections, assessments, photos, and surveys.

“3–5. Army corrosion prevention and control surveys Surveys are any capture of information or data that identifies corrosion on systems, equipment, materiel, facilities, or infrastructure that have the potential for corrosion. Surveys include but are not limited to vis- ual inspections, assessments, reviews, audits, or notes capturing data, photos, or other similar media of exhibited or nonexhibited corrosion.”

Prevention, detection, treatment

Verify the program covers frequent cleaning, early corrosion detection, proper treatment materials, and maintenance painting.

“4.1.6. The ICBM Corrosion Prevention and Control Program consists of frequent cleaning, corrosion inspections and early detection, application of proper treatment materials/procedures, and maintenance painting. Maintenance painting is defined for field purposes such as spot painting, sectionalized painting, and complete scuff sand and overcoat. The corrosion prevention and control program is divided into three components, prevention, detection and treatment.”

Report corrosion failures

Ensure corrosion-related failures and preventive actions are reported on the correct maintenance and inspection forms.

“l. Ensure that the reporting process for corrosion -related failures includes failures where corrosion con- tributed to system or equipment failure or for maintenance being done as either a preventive measure or because of corrosion. Use the following reporting mechanisms — (1) DA Form 2404 (Equipment Inspection and Maintenance Worksheet) (see DA Pam 750 – 8). (2) DA Form 5988 – E (Equipment Maintenance and Inspection Worksheet) (see DA Pam 750 – 8). (3) DA Form 2407 (Maintenance Request) (see DA Pam 750 – 8). (4) DA Form 2408 – 13 – 1 (Aircraft Inspection and Maintenance Record) (see DA Pam 738 – 751). (5) DA Form 7790 (Care of Supplies in Storage (COSIS)) (see AR 735 – 5). (6) DD Form 1225 (Storage Quality Control Report) (see AR 740 – 3). (7) SF 364 (Report of Discrepancy) (see DLM 4000.25 Series, Volume 2). (8) SF 368 (Product Quality Deficiency Report (PQDR)) (see DA Pam 738 –”… (paragraph continues in the PDF)

Structured E&I plan

Build a QA evaluation and inspection plan specifying the number and type of inspections to complete each month.

“6.7.3. Unit MSEP Evaluation and Inspection ( E&I) Plan. QA will develop an E&I Plan specifying numbers of approved areas and types ( PE, QVI, SI, MI) of inspections and evaluations to complete during the month. Types of inspections must be separated and will not be combined (such as, PE/QVI). (T-2)”

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Updated 2026-08-01. CheckMyRegs is an unofficial index — always cite the official publication.