Air Force tech push gets $63 million from reutilized funds

The Defense Logistics Agency is expanding its push to recover critical materials from excess military property, and a recent transfer of seized chemicals shows how the effort can bolster both readiness and the defense industrial base.

While DLA’s reverse logistics team builds new pathways to recapture scarce elements from items like night‑vision optics and scrap metal, its longstanding Reutilization, Transfer and Donation program remains central to the mission. In a case last summer, DLA units in Battle Creek, Michigan, and at the Red River property disposal field site in Texas worked with the Defense Threat Reduction Agency to move multiple direct shipments of sodium perchlorate, valued at an estimated $63 million, to an end user identified through Air Force reutilization channels.

Russell Manuel, branch chief for DLA Disposition Services’ Property Management Division, said the DTRA lot—originating from an overseas seizure—required “receipt in place” to transfer custody to DLA. After a recipient was identified, he said there was a “smooth, safe transition” of the unique and potentially volatile material.

According to Dr. Susanna Back, who leads the strategic and critical materials section for the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Materials and Manufacturing Directorate at Wright‑Patterson Air Force Base, sodium perchlorate is an important feedstock used to produce potassium perchlorate for military pyrotechnics and training devices.

Back said her directorate serves as the Executive Agent Program Office for Defense Production Act Title III, which manages a multibillion‑dollar portfolio focused on projects that “create, maintain, protect, expand, or restore domestic industrial base capabilities essential for the national defense.”

A Colorado defense chemical supplier specializing in solid rocket motors, propulsion research and black powder production contacted Back’s office after learning of the reutilization opportunity. The EAPO DPA Title III team requisitioned the material on the company’s behalf under a Technology Investment Agreement. Officials cited the DoD Grant and Agreement Regulations, which allow the government to furnish property to a recipient, and referenced the incidental authority at 50 USC §4533(d): “The procurement power granted to the President by this section shall include the power to transport and store and have processed and refined any materials procured under this section.”

AFRL’s Materials and Manufacturing Directorate develops materials, processes and advanced manufacturing technologies that underpin aircraft, spacecraft, missiles, rockets and ground systems. DTRA supports U.S. and allied efforts to deter, prevent and counter weapons of mass destruction and emerging threats.

For DLA, the transfer underscores how traditional reutilization can complement emerging material‑recovery initiatives—keeping valuable inputs in the supply chain, aiding industry and sharpening military readiness.