BATTLE CREEK, Mich. –
Defense Logistics Agency Disposition Services personnel recently solved a yearslong challenge that would have eventually impacted the agency’s armor-cutting and demilitarization capability.
Expeditionary reverse logisticians often use plasma torches to demilitarize unserviceable equipment turned in by military units downrange. Demilitarization renders equipment unusable for its original military purpose, helping DLA ensure that sensitive technology and equipment with offensive and defensive capabilities do not fall into the hands of adversaries. The congressionally-mandated process is a vital component of force protection, ensuring assets such as up-armored vehicles and weaponry cannot be repurposed or reverse-engineered by unauthorized actors.
Equipment Management and Training Branch Chief Tim Zweng said the major subordinate command began exploring options to replace its aging plasma cutting torches after the previous system manufacturer went out of business in 2018. Zweng said his team researched multiple replacement systems, but none matched the performance metrics required for the mission. The team then attempted to build an entirely new system, but compatibility and military specification issues stalled the project.
“We still had generators, still had our air compressor and all that, but we couldn’t get any more parts for the plasma cutter that was on the system itself,” said Heavy Equipment Specialist Bryar Courneya.
Courneya said a replacement plasma cutter was eventually purchased for testing, but technicians could not get it to work with DLA’s existing armor-cutting system.
“The new plasma cutter and the old system basically could not communicate correctly with each other,” he said.
Zweng said Courneya ultimately solved the problem created by voltage differences between the legacy onboard computer system and new plasma cutters, which caused the systems to overload and shut down after only a few minutes of operation. The team reached out directly to the manufacturer of the onboard computer system, and after some troubleshooting, the team identified a safe bypass adjustment that allowed the legacy system and the new plasma cutter to communicate.
Courneya said the solution extended the operational life of the current systems and gave the agency additional time to pursue a long-term replacement option. The team still wanted to test the system in an operational environment that was cutting metal eight hours a day. To validate the fix, Courneya traveled to Kuwait, carrying a plasma cutter by hand after shipping delays threatened testing timelines.
“He ran through about 1,000 pounds of metal in Kuwait in the middle of the summer of 2025 and was able to just cut and cut and cut,” Zweng said.
Courneya said the new torch works just as efficiently with the legacy system as the old one did, and Zweng said the team’s problem solving avoided an estimated $4.2 million for the replacement of 14 plasma cutting systems.